


Don't Profile Me

by AliceInFlannel



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Anxiety, Aversion to touch, BAMF Castiel (Supernatural), BAMF Dean Winchester, Behavioral Analysis Unit (Criminal Minds), Bisexual Castiel (Supernatural), Bisexual Dean Winchester, Boss Castiel (Supernatural), Boss/Employee Relationship, Bottom Castiel/Top Dean Winchester, Case Fic, Charlie Bradbury Ships Castiel/Dean Winchester, Dom Castiel (Supernatural), Dom Castiel/Sub Dean Winchester, Dom/sub Undertones, FBI Agent Castiel (Supernatural), FBI Agent Dean Winchester, FBI Agent Sam Winchester, Friends to Lovers, Gay Panic, Hurt Castiel (Supernatural), Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Married Castiel (Supernatural), Panic Attacks, Partners to Lovers, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sam Winchester Ships Castiel/Dean Winchester, Seriously Sam is a genius, Slow Burn, Smart Sam Winchester, Sub Dean Winchester, Switching, Top Castiel/Bottom Dean Winchester
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:21:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 51,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27072634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliceInFlannel/pseuds/AliceInFlannel
Summary: This is a Supernatural/Criminal Minds crossover. It's going to be plot-heavy with cases, but also with a lot of angsty Destiel goodness. I'm meshing aspects of some of the Criminal Minds characters with the characters we know and love from SPN as well as getting some of the case ideas from the show or from real life true crime cases.
Relationships: Castiel & Dean Winchester, Castiel/Dean Winchester, Jessica Moore/Sam Winchester
Comments: 25
Kudos: 81





	1. The Aggressor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another WIP, you ask? I'm sorry I can't seem to help myself. It's the Gemini in me. Don't worry, I will keep working on all of the fics I've started, but I like to let myself write when I feel like it instead of forcing myself to stick to a strict posting schedule.

Castiel steps back from the finished crib he’d finally gotten assembled. It only took him three hours to set it up. Next time he buys furniture at IKEA he’s going to pay someone to help him assemble it, because that instruction manual was not helpful at all. Amelia found it endlessly amusing every time he got frustrated and began swearing at the various screws and pieces of wood that he couldn’t figure out. He would’ve asked her to help, but he didn’t think that’d be fair of him considering she’s seven months pregnant with their son. Right now she’s looking down at her phone while she scrolls through possible baby names.

“How about Michael? It’s Hebrew for ‘one who is like God’.” Amelia looks up at him while he pushes the crib up against the wall.

“How about Dmitri?” Castiel says, keeping his voice serious even though he’s only joking.

“Please tell me you aren’t being serious,” Amelia gasps.

“Misha?” Castiel asks with a smile.

Amelia laughs and shakes her head. She looks down at her phone a bit longer. “I’ve got it… Gabriel!”

Castiel almost gags. There’s no way he’s naming his son after his insufferable brother. “Not a chance!” He walks over towards Amelia and joins her in sitting on their bed.

“It’s Hebrew as well,” Amelia says before grabbing his hand. “It means ‘God is my strength’. It’s perfect! Gabriel Novak.”

“One Gabriel related to me is enough,” Castiel chuckles, “Though I’m sure he’d be flattered.” He leans in to kiss the smile off of her face, but they’re interrupted before things can get too heated by the sound of his cell phone ringing. Amelia sighs because she knows what that means.

Castiel has been in the FBI for going on ten years now, but he used to work out of Illinois. He just recently got a call from his older brother Gabriel who is the head of the Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico, Virginia that a spot opened up on their team. Castiel didn’t accept the offer at first because he’d been through a traumatic incident on the job recently and was taking some time off, but he knew Gabe wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. Also with a baby on the way, he needs to be able to find a way to provide for his family. This promotion to Assistant Supervisory Unit Chief would come with a huge pay increase. It would also give them a chance to get out of their small town lives in Illinois and live in the big city like Amelia has always dreamed of.

To her it was a no-brainer, and Castiel couldn’t help but agree once he’d given himself some time to wrap his brain around it. So here they are in a new house that’s basically empty except for the moving boxes that cover almost every available floor space. It’s Saturday so that gives him a couple days to help her unpack before he has to go back to work.

Castiel’s stomach clenches with nerves when he thinks about getting back into the field. He grabs his ringing cell phone to distract himself and answers it.

“Cassie.” It’s Gabriel. Even though he used the annoying nickname he has for him, his voice sounds serious. Castiel’s nerves pick up again. “Pack your go-bag and come on in.”

He feels like his stomach is in his throat. “Right now?”

“Yes, Castiel,” Gabriel says in a frustrated voice, “Killers don’t just work on the weekdays. There’s a case in Portland. He’s taken three victims in the past four months. He keeps them alive for a week, and each body was found with rope around their necks and a stick beside them.”

“A garrote,” Castiel breathes. “To control the rate at which he suffocates them.” His brain automatically switches into FBI mode, and his nerves instantly dissipate. He loves his job. He knows this is what he was meant to do.

“To prolong it?” Gabriel asks.

Castiel can tell that Gabe already knows the answer to his question, but he’s trying to boost his confidence. He appreciates the gesture even though it is a bit obvious. “To enjoy it.”

He can hear the smile in Gabe’s voice when he continues. “Portland has hit a wall so they called to enlist our help.” That’s how the Behavioral Analysis Unit functions. Unless it’s a federal matter they aren’t allowed to choose the cases they work on unless they’re invited in to help by local law enforcement. Their skill set lies in their ability to understand the criminals and predict how they’ll behave. They create psychological profiles to help law enforcement narrow down their suspect pool. “I know you’re nervous, Cassie, but it’s time to get back up on that horse. I need you to come in ASAP.” Gabriel hangs up the phone before he has a chance to argue any further.

He sighs and looks back over towards Amelia who is watching him with a closed off expression. “I’m sorry, honey, they need me to go in to the office.” Castiel quickly grabs his black duffel bag and starts filling it up with the necessary items that should be in every go-bag: cash, a gun with ammo, and a fake passport go in the hidden compartment at the bottom. Then he stacks a few days worth of clothes, his laptop and charger, and toiletries on top of that.

“You’re not going to the office,” Amelia sighs. “You’re going somewhere else.” She points to his go-bag and raises her eyebrows at him.

“Ames, I told you this position would require extensive traveling. This isn’t like being in the Illinois Bureau where everything is within a couple hundred miles. I’ll be traveling all over the United States.”

“I know,” Amelia says softly, stepping forward to wrap her hands around his waist. “I just hoped you wouldn’t have to leave so soon.”

“I’ll be back to help unpack as soon as I am able,” Castiel promises, giving her a gentle kiss on the lips. He picks up his bag and walks towards the door.

“Please be careful,” she says as he steps through the door. He assures her that he’ll be fine, but the anxiety is already back causing his chest to tighten up. He shouldn’t be back in the field this soon. Not after what happened last time.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Dean sits in the bullpen with his feet kicked up on his desk. Sam rolls his eyes at him when he turns around in his chair. Bobby is in his office talking to Gabriel which means they’re most likely about to be called out into the field. Dean is a bit annoyed because it’s Saturday afternoon, and he has plans with his off-again, on-again girlfriend Lisa tonight. They aren’t officially back together, but they had plans to “discuss things” tonight over dinner which would probably either result in some more breakup sex or passionate reunion sex. Either way, Dean was counting on getting some sex tonight, and it seems like some murderous freak is going to take that away from him. Sometimes he hates this job.

“I heard they’re bringing in the new Supervisory Special Agent from Illinois today,” Sam says leaning back in his chair.

“Isn’t he Gabriel’s younger brother?” Jo asks from her desk across from Dean’s. She only joined the BAU a couple months ago, but with her fiery spirit and work ethic, Dean is sure she’ll climb the ranks quickly. Sam is also relatively new to the team. Originally he’d planned on going to law school, but when their father died, he decided he wanted to be closer to Dean instead of a thousand miles away at school.

Dean is twenty-nine now, but he’s been in the FBI since he was twenty-three. He was originally just a basic field agent, but when he happened to work on a case with Bobby, the older man had seen potential in him that nobody else in his life ever had. Bobby showed him how he runs the BAU, and Dean was immediately hooked. He’s always been interested in criminal psychology, but he never thought he’d be smart enough to get picked for this elite team of agents. Sammy is the Winchester with the brains, while Dean has always been the brawn.

Bobby took him under his wing when John passed. Dean had started drinking way too much, and he’d been brought up on disciplinary action multiple times, almost even getting kicked out of the Bureau. Bobby stepped in and vouched for him. If he hadn’t done that, Dean knows he probably wouldn’t have a job right now. Then Bobby helped him prepare for the entrance examinations and also helped him get over his alcohol problem. Dean owes Bobby more than his job. He owes him his life.

Bobby is actually the founder of the Behavioral Analysis Unit, so he has complete control on who is appointed to the team and how the team functions as a unit. Gabriel is his second-in-command, but actually Gabe is more like their day-to-day boss since Bobby doesn’t go out in the field anymore. Dean is the highest ranked of the regular agents in the unit because he has seniority over Sam and obviously over Jo. With the addition of this new Supervisory Special Agent, he’ll move down to the fourth spot. Dean is not very happy about that.

“Yes, he’s Gabriel’s half-brother,” Sam answers Jo. Dean had been so deep in his thoughts he’d forgotten she’d even asked a question.

“He’s the one who fucked up in Illinois a couple months ago and got six agents killed,” Dean adds bluntly.

Sam shoots Bitchface #3 in his direction, and Jo looks back and forth between them in confusion. She’s barely turned twenty-three so she’s fresh out of the academy and probably doesn’t get the FBI newsletter yet. “What happened?”

Sam speaks up before Dean can say anything further. “He made a mistake,” he says. “It happens. Despite how much we prepare for these situations, humans are unpredictable. We can assemble the most accurate profile in the world and sometimes the unsub acts in a way we didn’t plan for.” Sam turns to glare at Dean again. “It wasn’t Novak’s fault.”

Dean rolls his eyes. Novak may have been cleared from any wrong-doing, but that doesn’t change the fact that six agents had been killed under his supervision. Dean would be lying if he said he wasn’t a bit bitter that this guy from Illinois is getting promoted over him when Dean _hasn’t_ been responsible for the deaths of any fellow agents. It must be because he’s Gabriel’s brother.

“Unsub?” Jo asks.

  
“Stands for unidentified subject,” Dean explains. “The bad guy we’re hunting.” Jo nods, storing that answer away with all the other facts she probably has crowding around in her brain. Learning about the job is one thing, but being out in the field is a completely different beast.

Bobby’s office door opens, and he steps out with Gabriel behind him. Gabriel walks over towards the elevators at the entrance to the floor while Bobby signals the three of them to walk with him to the conference room where they do their briefings.

When they get to the conference room, they sit down at the round table while Bobby puts up the crime scene photos on the projector screen. As he’s getting everything set up, Gabriel comes into the room followed by a tall, dark-haired man in a suit. _This is Castiel Novak?_ He couldn’t look more opposite of Gabriel. While Gabriel is short and average looking, Castiel is tall and very attractive. Dean swallows unconsciously. Even though the two of them are half-brothers, Dean had been expecting them to look somewhat alike. He looks at Sam and Jo and can see they’re both thinking the same thing.

“BAU team, this is Supervisory Special Agent Castiel Novak,” Gabriel introduces his younger brother to the team. “Castiel, this is Bobby Singer, Dean and Sam Winchester, and Jo Harvelle.” They all wave politely at him, but Dean’s face remains hard. He notices Novak's eyes linger on him longer than they do on the other people in the room, probably because he’s the only one not smiling in welcome.

“This is twenty-six year old, Ashley Frank,” Bobby points to the picture of the woman on the projector screen. “While she was at work on Wednesday, she opened up an email with a time-delayed virus attached to it. The virus completely wiped her hard-drive of everything except this message.” Bobby clicks a key to make another image pop up.

It’s a note. “Look over your shoulder,” Castiel reads in a voice that’s way lower than Dean was expecting it to be, “I’m closer than you think.”

“That’s The Clover Killer,” Jo says excitedly pointing to how the unsub signed the note with a small four leaf clover.

Dean doesn’t want to burst her bubble, but he also needs her to know that this isn’t a race. She doesn’t have anything to prove here. “We can’t rule out the possibility that this could be a copycat trying to get attention.” Jo nods and sits back down in her seat.

“He never keeps them for more than a week which means we have less than three days left to find her alive,” Gabriel says. He’s usually able to keep up his sense of humor even during stressful situations like this, but all of them know this is a big case. If this is The Clover Killer, the Pacific Northwest and Canada have been searching for him for five years now. So far they’ve been able to directly link five murders to him, but they have no idea who he is.

“Alright, idjits,” Bobby says, shutting off the projector. “You can discuss the case further when you’re on the plane. Get moving!” Everyone runs to grab their go-bags and head towards the SUV that will take them to the small air field that the FBI uses. Before Dean is able to leave the room, Bobby grabs him by the arm. “I know you’re upset that Novak got the position over you, Dean, but you need to grow up and stop whining.”

“I’m not whining,” Dean whines.

Bobby just raises his eyebrows at him for a second before continuing. “I need you to watch out for him. He’s been through a hell of a trauma, and Gabriel is too personally involved to see things objectively. This girl may only have three days to live, and it’s not your job to judge Novak. I need you to give me an assessment of him, and I need to know you’ll be there to step in if he is unable to perform.”

Dean looks over towards the elevator where the rest of the team is holding the doors open while they wait for him. Castiel Novak is looking over with his head tilted a bit like he’s confused. He probably knows they’re talking about him. Dean turns back to Bobby. “Okay,” he nods and heads over to the elevator.

The short car ride to the small air field is a quiet one. Normally the team waits until they’re up in the air to go over their cases more in depth. Dean clenches his eyes shut as he always does when the plane races down the runway, but breathes a sigh of relief once they’re up in the air. This fancy private jet is the only plane he’ll fly on, and even then he always has to white-knuckle the take-offs and landings. When he opens his eyes again, he sees Novak staring at him. He shoots him another glare, and the dark-haired man quickly looks away.

Gabriel passes around dossiers for each of the agents to read. It’s a pretty big file since there have been two murders and one abduction as well as the five victims from The Clover Killer. Since they’re unsure as of right now if they can link these new cases to The Clover Killer, they will start out treating them as completely separate cases. The most important aspect of profiling is to not get focused on one suspect too early. It’s a mistake that law enforcement agencies make a lot, and one that often leads to innocent people being railroaded while the actual killer goes free.

“First victim of this unsub was Tanya Bell,” Sam starts.

“No,” Dean interrupts him gently. Even though he’s technically not in charge of anything, he does have seniority over the newer agents. Both Sam and Jo are going to make fine special agents once they get more experience, but right now they’re both still rookies. “Tanya Bell wasn’t the first victim of this unsub. We don’t know if these two cases are linked yet. For now we need to treat them as if there are two separate unsubs. The Clover Killer is confirmed to have killed five people over five years. This killer has murdered two people and kidnapped one over four months.”

Sam nods and starts again. “The first victim of The Clover Killer was Tanya Bell. Cause of death was multiple stab wounds and strangulation.”

Dean stands up and walks down the aisle towards Sam. “Hold up,” he says. “He stabbed her and then strangled her to finish her off?”

Castiel speaks up from directly behind him, “The other way around.” Dean turns around to face him and sees that he is standing way too close to him. Has this guy not heard of personal space? “Why do you think he started using a rope after the first murder?” That’s a pretty basic question. Dean assumes Castiel knows the answer, but he’s giving Sam and Jo a chance to come up with it themselves first. Dean may not be happy the guy is here, but he does respect him for that.

Jo speaks up, “Manual strangulation is a lot more difficult than people think. He probably tried to use just his bare hands but found out that it took too long so he resorted to using the knife.”

“Then he realized it would take hours to clean up all of the blood,” Gabriel says from his seat across from Sam, “so for his next kill, he brings the rope.”

“He’s learning,” Castiel says. He steps to the side to leave a bit of space between him and Dean. He probably realized that he’d made Dean uncomfortable. “Perfecting his method.”

“There’s a period of two and a half years where there were no murders,” Sam says, looking down at the file. “That’s a pretty long cooling-off period. If these last three can be attributed to him, then that would be an extreme escalation after not killing for years.”

“Both good points,” Gabriel says.

Dean thinks for a moment. “With that long of a cooling off period, either he was in prison for an unrelated crime or he had some other method of keeping control so he didn’t need to kill.” He can feel Novak's eyes on him, and when he looks up he can see that the other man is impressed. Dean tries his best not to look smug.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

When they land in Portland five hours later, Castiel thinks he may finally have his anxiety under control. It’s always difficult starting a new job with new coworkers. In the best of situations, there’s a period of awkwardness while everyone gets to know each other, but in this case it’s even more extreme since they’re being thrust into a case immediately.

From what he’s gleaned so far, it’s clear that this team deeply cares about each other. That’s good. Some people think personal attachments can get in the way of workplace efficiency, but Castiel finds that when coworkers know and care about each other, they’re actually more efficient because they bring out the best in each other. Since Dean and Sam have the same last name Castiel assumes they’re brothers, though they could be cousins. Dean is obviously a more seasoned agent while Sam is a newer addition to the team. Jo is also very new. In her file it said she’d immediately been moved from the academy straight into the BAU. That’s almost unheard of! She must show some great potential in this field.

Castiel is walking a few paces ahead of them, but he can still hear Dean muttering to Sam under his breath. He apparently doesn’t know that Castiel has near-perfect hearing. It’s a blessing and a curse, because what he overhears is enough to kick the anxiety back into action. “Did you see how he never stands with his back to a window?” Dean asks quietly. “When I was between him and the doorway, he asked me to move.” Castiel winces. He’d been hoping Dean hadn’t noticed that.

“It’s called hypervigilance,” Sam explains. “Not uncommon with people who have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.”

Dean huffs, “Just how much disorder are we talking about?” Castiel can feel his heart beating faster. He knew he wasn’t ready for this.

He starts walking even faster so he can barely hear Gabriel interrupt Dean to remind him that it’s been six months since Castiel’s incident and that he’s been cleared to work in the field. Gabriel’s tone is harsh, but professional. Castiel knows that his half-brother doesn’t want to look like he’s giving him special favors, but he’s also not going to stand by and let someone trash talk him. Castiel appreciates that.

When they step into the Portland field office, Gabriel introduces his team to the group of police officers waiting inside. “This is Special Agent Novak,” Gabriel says, pointing towards Castiel. “Special Agent Dean Winchester, our expert on obsessional crimes.” Dean walks past Castiel without even looking at him to put his stuff down on an empty table. “Special Agent Sam Winchester…”

“Dr. Sam Winchester,” Dean interrupts him, and Castiel looks up. He saw from glancing at Sam’s file that he passed through the academy with flying colors, but if he's only twenty-four and already has a doctorate, he must be very intelligent.

“Dr. Sam Winchester, our expert on, well… everything,” Gabriel says with a chuckle and a fond smile. “And after two years of communicating back and forth with me, I hope you all remember who I am.” The police officers laugh.

Castiel steps over towards the map that’s been pinned up on the wall. On it are the locations of where each woman was last seen connected with strings to where their bodies were dumped. “He’s not afraid of traveling with the bodies,” Castiel muses.

“Then he must drive a vehicle where he’d be able to hide them,” Gabriel says stepping up behind him.

“Approximately one in seven drivers in Portland drives an SUV,” Sam says, and Castiel blinks at him. _Is this kid a walking Wikipedia page or something?_ “Probably with tinted windows.”

“When did the Bureau get involved in the case?” Castiel asks.

“After the fourth body,” The police chief responds. “He dumped that one out of state.”

“If he did it on purpose that would indicate knowledge of law enforcement procedures. He might have a criminal record,” Jo says, holding up the clipboard where she’s been eagerly taking notes.

“Do you want to see our suspect list?” The police chief asks Gabriel.

Gabriel shakes his head. “We won’t look at a suspect list until after we’ve finished our profile. We want to make sure the profile we give you is unbiased.”

“When do we meet with your task force to give the profile?” Castiel asks.

“7 am,” another police officer says. It’s almost midnight. That doesn’t give them much time.

“An accurate profile in less than eight hours?” Dean asks incredulously.

“That won’t be a problem,” Castiel interrupts, walking towards the other side of the room where more information about the victims has been posted on a bulletin board. He hears Dean mutter something under his breath, but he can’t make it out.

Gabriel follows him to the bulletin board. “Agent Novak, where do you suggest we start?”

“At the site of the last murder,” He points to a picture of a muddy creek bed underneath an overpass. If they’re going to get this profile finished in less than a night, they’re going to have to get moving.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Dean watches skeptically while Agent Novak steps through the mud towards where the most recent body was discovered. He’s unsure why they needed to physically drive out here in the middle of the night. The entire area had been meticulously photographed by the evidence team. There’s no way they’ll be able to pick up anything new in the dark.

The cop they rode here with speaks up from beside him. “That’s _the_ Illinois Agent Novak right?” Dean looks over at him but doesn’t respond. “The one who caught that bomber, Gadreel, in Chicago?”

“Yep, that’s him,” Dean says and the cop beams in excitement. “But catching him cost us the lives of six agents.” The cop’s smile fades in a matter of seconds. Sam has always told Dean he has a gift for bringing down the room, but he’s tired of everyone putting this Novak guy on a pedestal.

After a few minutes of watching Castiel pace around in the dark, Dean rolls his eyes and walks over towards him. It’s pretty chilly out tonight, and his leather jacket isn’t cutting it. He wishes they were back at the field office where it was nice and warm. Dean looks at Castiel’s ugly tan trench coat when he gets closer to the man. He wonders if that’s warmer than his useless leather jacket. Well, at least Dean looks cool. “Twenty-two year old Rose Nelson was found right here,” he says when he gets within earshot.

Castiel holds up the crime scene photo under the light of his flashlight for Dean to see. “This time he left the rope around her neck instead of taking it with him.” He hands the picture to Dean. “He’s probably in his early twenties.”

Castiel immediately turns his back on Dean, who rolls his eyes again. Did Novak just pull that out of his ass? “What’s your evidence?” He asks skeptically.

“Youthful arrogance,” Castiel replies simply. Dean thinks about it for a moment and guesses that does make sense. A younger killer might not take the same precautions to cover up after himself as an older killer would.

“He clothed the body before dumping her,” Dean says. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“It’s a sign of remorse,” Castiel explains as if he’s a rookie.

Dean knows that, but that’s not why he’s confused. “It doesn’t match up with the location. He literally dumped her in the drainage ditch under a highway. His opinion of women is pretty clear.”

“He views them as disposable,” Castiel nods.

“So why take the time to dress her if he’s just going to dump her here?”

Castiel doesn’t respond, he just shrugs and walks back to the car to drive back to the field office. Well that was entirely pointless. They could’ve done all of this from the warmth of the office instead of wasting time to drive all the way out here. Dean sighs and gets back into the car.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Castiel positions himself strategically by the door to the informal interrogation room he’s standing in with Dean, Sam, and the recent missing woman’s brother. They’d brought him in for questioning to follow up on what he’d told the police officers. Castiel decides to mostly stand back and watch while Dean and Sam work.

“I’m Special Agent Dean Winchester,” Dean introduces himself first. “That’s Supervisory Special Agent Novak,” he gestures towards where he stands in the corner. “And this is Special Agent Dr. Sam Winchester.”

“You look too young to have gone to medical school,” the brother says, impressed.

“Oh I didn’t go to medical school,” Sam replies. “I have three PHDs.” Castiel’s mouth drops open without his permission, and he can see an equally surprised look on the brother’s face. 

“Are you a genius or something?” The brother asks incredulously. Castiel sees Dean roll his eyes before stepping over to the other side of the room. He seems to do that a lot. Castiel wonders if it’s just part of his personality or if he’s in a bad mood for some reason today.

“I don’t believe intelligence can be accurately measured,” Sam begins, “But my IQ is 168, and I have an eidetic memory.”

Dean slaps Sam lightly on the shoulder. “Alright, quit bragging,” he says fondly before turning to the brother. “Yes, he’s a genius.” Sam looks embarrassed when he shrugs Dean’s hand off of his shoulder. It’s clear that the two of them are close, and Dean seems to be very proud of his brother.

“Have you noticed anything odd over the past couple days since your sister has been missing?” Castiel asks to get them back on track.

“It’s probably nothing, but her dog is refusing to eat anything. Normally when she’s gone, I’ll feed her dog and he eats ravenously, but the past few days he hasn’t eaten anything,” the brother says sadly. “It’s like he can sense something is wrong.”

“Not sense, smell,” Sam says, leafing through the file while he talks. “Our sweat glands release secretions in response to emotional distress.”

Dean looks like he’s holding in a laugh when he translates for the confused brother what Sam just said. “Her dog is worried because he knows you’re worried.”

“What kind of car does your sister drive?” Sam asks, stopping at the section of the file where it mentions a witness saw someone speed off in a navy Jeep with tinted windows. That’s exactly the kind of car they’d profiled the unsub would drive.

“None at the moment, but she’s in the market for a Jeep.”

Dean stands up quickly and ushers the boyfriend out of the room. “Thank you for your help. We’ll contact you as soon as we have any updates.” He motions for Sam and Castiel to follow him back towards the conference room where Gabriel and Jo are waiting.

“I think I know how he’s luring the victims into his car,” Dean explains. “We know the first few victims were sex workers, so there’s an obvious reason why they’d get into his car, but the most recent two have been confusing. One of them was a university student, and Ashley Frank is a journalist.”

“They’re not women who would get into some random dude’s car,” Gabriel nods in understanding.

“There’s an immediate level of trust established between a buyer and a seller,” Dean says. “If I want to lure a young woman into my car…”

“Offer her a test drive,” Castiel says, impressed by Dean’s logic. He might act like Sam is the smart one in the family, but Dean is clearly intelligent as well.

“But here’s what still doesn’t make sense to me,” Dean starts pacing around, tossing a tennis ball up in the air and catching it while he walks. Castiel thinks he might be a kinesthetic thinker. “We know he plans on killing his victims, but the autopsy showed what?”

“He put layers of duct tape over each victim’s eyes,” Sam says, spinning around slowly in an office chair.

“So he doesn’t want them looking at him. That signals a lack of confidence or self-image issues,” Dean continues, “But then he takes the body and leaves it out in the open which displays over-confidence and arrogance.”

“He sounds paranoid,” Jo says, “Maybe he’s convinced he’s being watched, got nervous, and dumped the body quickly.”

“But the rest of his behavior doesn’t match up,” Dean bounces the ball on the floor and then catches it again.

“We don’t want to get bogged down in the details,” Gabriel reminds them. “We have enough to start narrowing down the list of suspects.”

“You know, we’re looking at less than two days to find this girl before he dumps her,” Dean reminds them, his voice betraying his anxiety.

Castiel blocks out their arguing and continues to focus on the information before him on the bulletin board. The answer is right in front of them, he just has to find it. He closes his eyes and thinks for a minute. When he opens his eyes it all makes sense. “Enough.” He doesn’t yell, but he says it loud enough to get everyone’s attention. “Gabe, tell them we’re ready.” He starts walking over towards the door.

“We’re ready?” Dean screeches. “Milton, are you okay with this?” He turns towards Gabriel. “We have a woman who has less than two days to live, an incomplete profile, and a unit chief on the verge of a nervous breakdown.”

“They don’t call them nervous breakdowns anymore,” Castiel says matter-of-factly before pulling open the door to the conference room and stepping out into the bullpen.

“It’s called a major depressive episode,” Sam informs him.

“I know, Sammy,” Dean throws the ball up in the air and lets it bounce twice before he catches it. The three of them follow Castiel out into the bullpen where the task force has gathered to listen to their profile.

Castiel stands in the center of the group. He hopes he’s right about this. He needs to prove himself to his team now, because everyone except for Gabriel thinks he’s crazy. “The unidentified subject is white and in his late twenties. He’s someone who can blend into any crowd, completely unremarkable. The violent nature of the crimes and counter measures to hide evidence suggests a previous criminal record, most likely petty crimes or auto theft. We’ve classified him as an organized killer. He’s careful and meticulous which means the only physical evidence you’re going to find is what he purposefully leaves behind. He drives a car that’s in good condition, our guess is a Jeep Cherokee, black or navy with tinted windows.” Castiel takes a deep breath and begins pacing. He can feel the eyes of all the police officers and his entire team following his every move. “The victims' autopsies all show signs of assault, but no penetration which means the unsub is likely impotent. He displays paranoid behavior which suggests a childhood trauma, most likely the death of a parent or family member. Organized killers have a fascination with law enforcement. They watch the news and they inject themselves into the investigation. All of this leads me to conclude that you have already interviewed him.”

Castiel turns back around to face his team, and he can see that Dean’s mouth has fallen open in shock. The last bit was the piece they’d been missing. This is going to narrow their suspect pool down a lot.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Dean is sitting in one of their standard issue black SUVs that the FBI requires all agents to drive. He’s in the back seat next to Jo, and Gabriel and Castiel are in the front. It took most of the day for them to narrow down the suspect list enough to where they feel confident they’ve found the right man. By now it’s a little after 10 pm, which means they only have one more day to find Ashley Frank alive.

The young man they’re looking for lives at a house with his mother and younger sister. They know that if they were to barge in to the house trying to arrest him, he could begin shooting and put those other civilians in danger. They need to figure out a way to lure him out of the house and to a secure location where they can arrest him peacefully.

“It has to be Jo,” Dean says and feels Jo perk up beside him. He doesn’t want to put her in unnecessary danger since this is her first time in the field, but he also knows how desperate she is to prove herself. “He’s not going to trust one of us, he just won’t.”

Gabriel nods in agreement. “Alright, Jo, are you ready?” Jo is practically vibrating in her seat with excitement. She nods quickly, and Dean can tell she’s trying to keep herself reigned in but doing a very poor job at it. “You’re going to go up to the house and knock on the door. Most likely the mother will answer it. Tell her that your car broke down and ask if there is anybody who can help you. When you come out with him, walk him over to that unmarked car over there.” Gabriel points towards where one of the undercover cops has been monitoring the house all afternoon. “We’ll come out and surround him once you’re there.”

Jo nods. “Got it!” The three of them watch as Jo slowly approaches the house and knocks on the door. An older woman answers it, so Gabriel was right in his prediction. After a few moments the woman looks back inside the house and shouts something. Dean, Gabriel, and Castiel step out of the car and take up their positions around the unmarked vehicle. They make sure they’re out of sight so they won’t spook him when they come over. Jo and the suspect walk towards the car, and Dean can hear Jo explaining the fake car trouble she’s been having. Once he’s standing by the car positioned in front of Jo, the three of them draw their weapons and jump out from their hiding places. “FBI! Get down on the ground!”

Jo places her knee in the small of the suspect’s back and pulls his arms behind his back before shoving him to the ground. In one smooth motion she pulls her handcuffs out of her back pocket and snaps them on his wrists. “Richard Svenson, FBI. You are under arrest for the murder of Rose Nelson and the kidnapping of Ashley Frank.” While Jo continues to read out his rights, Dean and Castiel step forward. Richard steadily locks eyes with Castiel and doesn’t look away. He has a slight smirk on his face. They were right about the ‘youthful arrogance’ part of the profile. He just hopes they were right about the rest of it as well.

They usher the suspect back inside his house while the rest of the cops block off the street to keep curious civilians out of the way. “I’m going to go check out his room,” Gabriel says, immediately heading upstairs.

Dean steps inside towards where Castiel and Sam are talking. “There’s no sign of Ashley Frank here. We can arrest him with probable cause, but we won’t be able to hold him,” Sam says. Once they’d finished the profile, they were able to check out the suspect list the police had compiled. Richard Svenson was at the top of the list and he fits the profile almost exactly. Dean knows they have the right guy.

“Is that the mother?” Dean asks, gesturing towards the older woman Jo had spoken to at the front door.

“Grandmother,” Jo replies, stepping forward to join them. “His mother died in a fire when he was ten.”

“That probably wasn’t the only fire in his childhood,” Castiel muses.

“Should I set up a secure place where we can question him?” Jo asks.

Dean shakes his head at the same time as Castiel responds. “Svenson has done time. If we try to question him now, the only thing we’ll get is a demand for a lawyer.” Castiel heads upstairs to follow Gabriel. Dean is once again impressed that this agent from Illinois seems to be as well-versed in criminal psychology as he is. Maybe he should try to tamp down on some of his earlier automatic judgements of the guy.

A police officer comes inside and announces, “There’s a navy Jeep Cherokee in the garage.”

Dean and Jo look at each other. “Well, we got the car right,” Jo says.

“We’re missing something,” Dean taps his finger against his chin. “The girls all had defensive wounds on their bodies, but Svenson doesn’t have a mark on him.” Jo nods and moves over to talk to some of the police officers in the living room.

Dean figures he’ll follow the others upstairs to Svenson’s room. When he gets inside, he’s immediately confused. This is a teenage boy’s room, not a man’s. The walls are covered with band posters, and there’s a stereo system with probably at least one hundred CDs scattered all over the place. Inside the room, two cops are at Svenson’s desk where there’s a computer sitting on the table. Gabriel and Castiel are standing behind them looking over their shoulders.

“He gave us the username and password,” one of the cops says as he begins to type it in.

“No, wait!” Dean yells, but it’s too late. The cop already hit ‘enter’ and the screen immediately turns black.

“It’s not turning back on,” the cop says in confusion.

“And it’s not going to,” Dean runs his hand through his hair in frustration. “He gave you a fake password to shut down the computer.” He walks over to the other side of the room before he can let his anger get the best of him. It wouldn't help to start yelling at the local law enforcement. They're often incompetent, but the BAU needs to work with them to get this done. Gabriel and Castiel follow behind him. 

Sam is sitting down and looking at what appears to be some kind of board game. “It’s an ancient Chinese game called Go,” Sam explains when the others gather around him. “It’s widely believed to be the most difficult board game ever invented.” Sam spins the board around easily because it seems to be on rotating wooden platform. “It looks like he’s been playing against himself,” Sam says quietly. “This could help us because Go is considered to be a particularly psychologically revealing game.” Dean steps up behind Sam and ruffles his hair fondly. The kid is such a nerd. “There are profiles for every type of player: there’s the conservative point counter, the aggressor, the subtle schemer…”

“What kind of player is Svenson?” Gabriel asks.

Sam spins the board again and thinks for a moment. “He’s definitely an aggressor.” Dean sees Gabriel and Castiel nod at each other. That fits with their profile.

Dean sighs and walks back over towards the computer on the desk, motioning for the cops to leave. They’ve done enough damage as it is. He pulls open the computer and sees a spot for him to type in the correct password and reverse the lock that’s been placed on it. Unfortunately, it looks like he’s only allowed five tries before all of the data on the hard-drive will be wiped. He doesn't like those odds. 

“Do you think you can log in?” Castiel asks. “There could be an email or journal entry in there saying where Ashley is being kept.”

“In five tries?” Dean asks angrily. He’s not a magician.

“Do not fear failure, but rather fear not trying,” Castiel quotes mysteriously. Dean just raises his eyebrows at Sam. He is not in the mood for riddles right now.

Sam thinks for a second before he says, “It’s from Roy T. Bennett’s _The Light in the Heart_.”

“There is no try. There is only do,” Dean replies smugly. He can quote things too.

Agent Novak looks confused, and Sam turns to him. “John Green, _The Fault in Our Stars_. Really, Dean?” Dean just shrugs.

Agent Novak leans over the desk and picks up a book that was covered up by a car magazine. It’s a textbook on applied criminal psychology. Dean knows it’s not unusual for these guys to study other criminals. They have a saying in the BAU that criminals often make the best profilers. Castiel flips open the book to a newspaper clipping that was partially sticking out of the pages. It’s an article on the bombing in Illinois. The incident made national news, so it’s not surprising that Svenson had heard of it. The picture in the article shows Castiel right after the blast when he was being checked by medical personel for any injuries. He has a bullet wound in his right leg, which explains the slight limp Dean had noticed him walking with, and the look on his face can only be described as devastation and grief. Dean’s chest tightens when he sees the picture of what was probably Castiel’s lowest moment captured forever in a newspaper article like it’s some sort of celebrity gossip.

“I want to speak to him,” Castiel says angrily. He quickly leaves the room without looking back, and Gabriel shoots Dean a look telepathically asking him to go with him. Gabriel has work to do up here, and he doesn’t have time to look out for his brother.

Dean takes the stairs two at a time as he tries to catch up to him. The police have been holding Svenson in the kitchen. He’s sitting down at the dining table with a smug look on his face. Castiel slams the book onto the table in front of Svenson. Dean stands to the side while Castiel sits down across from the suspect. He wants to let Castiel have a chance at him first, but he needs to be here in case things get out of control. It already looks like Svenson has succeeded in riling him up, because Dean hasn’t seen him lose his composure once since they got here.

“Do you have an academic interest in criminal psychology or are you just planning your defense?” Castiel asks, pointing at the book.

Svenson laughs. “I see you saw the article I saved. It’s a good picture. Really brings out the terror in your eyes.”

Dean gets ready to step in, but Castiel just smiles and pulls out the article, slowly pushing it across the table towards the suspect. “Are you a fan of Gadreel Pinikett’s work?” That’s the name of the bomber who blew up all of those agents.

Svenson leans forward in his seat. “They never tell you the statistics on the effectiveness of CPR outside of a hospital setting,” he starts. Dean has absolutely no idea where this is heading, but he can see Castiel’s expression tighten. “It’s only 7% effective when performed outside of a hospital. That means your friend, Samandriel, had a 93% chance of dying, and yet you kept trying… even after you’d broken his ribs, even after his blood was all over your hands.” Svensen sits back with that same smug smile on his face, waiting for Castiel to break.

Dean can see the pain in the man’s eyes, but he still seems in control of himself. Dean is actually worried he might lose it himself. He feels like a complete jackass for judging Castiel so harshly when he had no idea outside of what was reported in the news what happened.

“Why don’t you tell us where Ashley Frank is?” Castiel says calmly.

“Isn’t she the girl who went missing a few days ago?” Svenson asks innocently.

Castiel stands up and motions for the cops to come back over. “Take him to the station.” As he walks past Dean, the two of them make eye contact. Dean’s face is full of sympathy, but that only causes Castiel’s bright blue eyes to harden in distrust. He pushes his way past Dean to get some air outside. He knows he probably shouldn’t crowd Castiel right now, but as the third highest ranking member of the team he needs to apologize for the way he’s been acting. The two of them have clearly gotten started on the wrong foot, but they’re going to be working closely together for the foreseeable future, and they at least need to be civil.

He finds Castiel standing behind the house beyond where the cluster of cop cars with flashing lights are keeping civilians at bay. Even from a distance he can tell that the older agent is breathing heavily. He might be having some sort of panic attack.

“Hey,” Dean says awkwardly to let Castiel know he’s here.

Castiel immediately stiffens, and he turns around to face Dean. His face is closed off, but he doesn’t look like he’d been crying. “He said ‘isn’t she the girl’,” Castiel says breathlessly.

It takes Dean a second to process what he’s getting at. “If he’d already killed her, he would’ve said ‘wasn’t she the girl.’ Ashley Frank must still be alive somewhere.” Castiel looks like he’s about to walk back towards the house, but Dean casually steps ahead of him to block his path. They need to at least attempt to talk about this. “Is that true what Svenson said about CPR? I didn’t know that.”

“If you want statistics on CPR, I’m sure your brother could tell you,” Castiel says harshly.

“I wanted to say I’m sorry—”

“I don’t need your sympathy,” Castiel interrupts him. “Not when you’ve been judging me since the moment I stepped into the BAU.”

Dean looks down guiltily because he’s not wrong. “That’s what I was trying to apologize for if you’d let me finish,” he mutters. When he looks back up, he can see a slight pink tinge on Castiel’s cheeks as if he’s embarrassed for snapping at him even though he deserved it. “I didn’t want to admit it, but I was jealous that you got the promotion over me,” Dean says. “I’m sorry for judging you, and I’m sorry for being an ass.”

Castiel doesn’t smile, but his expression does soften somewhat. “Thank you, Dean,” he says quietly. “It was never my intention to step on your toes. Honestly, I’m not even sure myself if I’m ready to be back in the field. Gabriel seems to think I am, and he’s the reason I’m here.”

“Are you and Gabriel close?” Dean asks. The two of them seem like polar opposites which is kind of hilarious.

“He can be a bit insufferable at times,” Castiel says, making Dean chuckle because he definitely has seen that side of Gabriel. “But he’s always been there for me. We haven’t been as close in recent years simply because we were living on different sides of the country, but I wanted to come out here to fix that.”

“You missed him,” Dean says. It isn’t a question because he can hear it evident in Castiel’s voice. The older agent nods, and Dean decides this conversation is quickly veering into ‘chick-flick’ territory, so he needs to put an end to it. “Let’s go back inside. We have a missing girl to find.” He claps Castiel on the shoulder and heads back inside to meet the others. They know for sure she’s still alive, and that gives him hope.


	2. The Dominant

Castiel would be lying if he said he wasn’t taken aback by Dean’s seemingly sincere apology. After all, the green-eyed agent has been nothing but hostile towards him the past two days. Maybe seeing Svenson attack him like that during the interrogation was enough to humanize him. Whatever the reason, Castiel is just happy that they can be civil towards one another now. He didn’t want to make any enemies out of his coworkers on his first case.

When he gets back inside the house, he’s immediately confronted by Gabriel. “Are you okay?” Gabriel asks, concern etched all over his face. Castiel is getting really tired of everyone handling him with kid gloves. His psychiatric evaluation cleared him for field work, and Gabriel had practically begged him to come here. So why is he suddenly questioning Castiel’s ability to do the job?

“I’m fine,” Castiel replies evenly.

Gabriel holds eye contact as if he’s trying to decide if Castiel is lying. He should know that he isn’t, because Castiel has always been a terrible liar. “Are you sure?”

“You’re the one who asked me to come back, Gabe,” Castiel says, starting to get a bit frustrated. “Do you think I can’t do the job?”

“I think you can’t be two people at once,” Gabriel says. Sometimes his brother can be the crudest and most obnoxious person in the room, but other times, like right now, he can be really profound. He’s right. Castiel can’t be two people at once, but compartmentalizing is different from dissociating.

_You can’t be two people at once._

“What is it?” Gabriel asks, noticing the small smile that’s formed on Castiel’s face.

“The conflicts in the profile,” Castiel says. “There are two different behaviors.”

“Two different unsubs,” Gabriel says with a grin mirroring his own. “We’re dealing with a team.”

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Back in the Svensons’ living room, the team regroups. The new revelation that they’re dealing with a killing team changes things a lot. Dean gently tosses his tennis ball from hand to hand. He doesn’t know why, but he’s always been able to think better when his hands are busy.

“So this is connected to the Clover Killer case after all,” Dean states. “They may not have been working together the whole time, but at some point they met and formed a relationship. That would explain the change in M.O.”

“These two guys aren’t equals,” Gabriel says. “Svenson is smart, but he’s a submissive personality. Whoever the Clover Killer is must be the dominant personality.”

“Arrogant and authoritative,” Castiel says. “Most likely not as smart as Svenson. They’re like bullies at school. They recruit a good guy by protecting him when he’s being picked on and then use that to make him feel like he owes them.”

“The most likely scenario is that during the two year cooling off period the Clover Killer was in prison for an unrelated crime,” Sam says. “He probably met Svenson while they were both doing time, and with Svenson being a younger kid, kind of scrawny and unable to protect himself, they probably formed a relationship.”

“Sammy’s right,” Dean says. “We should start by looking through the records to figure out who was in prison at the same time as Svenson.”

“I’m on it,” Jo says before running off to find a computer.

“I’m going to keep working on getting into the kid’s laptop,” Dean says. Castiel volunteers to help, which is surprising. Dean figured he wouldn’t want anything to do with him after the way he’s been treating him this whole time. Maybe that means he accepted Dean’s earlier apology. After brainstorming for about thirty minutes, Dean decides they need help. He pulls out his cellphone to dial up the number for his favorite tech savvy coworker.

“You’ve reached Charlie Bradbury in the FBI’s Office of Superior Feminine Baddassery.” Dean smiles and sees Castiel tilt his head in confusion at Charlie’s complete lack of professionalism. It happens to be one of Dean’s favorite things about her.

“Hey Charlie, it’s Dean,” he says, his smile coming through in his tone even though this is serious. “I need you to take a shot of some of your Felix Felicis and help me out with something. I have a program here called Password Protect and a girl with less than a day to live. What can you tell me about it?”

“Then you have a problem,” Charlie replies. “Password Protect is the number one password locking software out there. You’re going to have to get inside this guy’s head to get the password.”

Dean sighs. “I thought I was calling the Office of Superior Feminine Baddassery.”

“Well, I’m transferring you to the Office of Too-Fucking-Bad,” Charlie retorts, and Dean hears Castiel gasp quietly beside him. He’d almost find that funny if he didn’t have only five chances to get onto this kid’s computer. Dean tells her that he’ll call if he has any more questions. 

"Live long and prosper, dearest Handmaiden," Charlie says before hanging up. The look on Castiel's face is absolutely priceless, but Dean is too embarrassed to laugh. Usually he likes to keep the whole 'Handmaiden' thing on the down-low because it's a bit weird for people who don't know the context. He feels the same way about his LARPing adventures. What happens in Moondoor should stay in Moondoor. He'll have to remind Charlie about that later. 

Dean walks over to Svenson’s bathroom and starts looking through all of his personal items. Charlie is right. He needs to get inside this guy’s brain if he wants to have any chance of cracking his password. He feels Castiel following behind him. Dean opens up the medicine cabinet and pulls out a prescription bottle of Lunesta. Svenson must have trouble sleeping. He raises his eyebrows at Castiel and then heads back into the bedroom before lying down on Svenson’s bed.

“W-what are you doing?” Castiel asks.

“I’m getting inside his head,” Dean explains. “You’ve never role-played before?” That’s a pretty standard profiling practice, and he’s surprised Castiel hasn’t heard of it.

Castiel blushes, “I usually just think through the possible scenarios in my head.”

“Okay, Sam,” Dean chuckles. “I think better when I move around.” He closes his eyes and rests his hands on his belly. “Okay, what do I do when I’m trying to get to sleep?” He opens his eyes again and looks around on the end table next to the bed. He finds a stack of even more CDs and an old CD player with attached headphones. Yahtzee! He stands up and smiles at Castiel before calling over some of the cops who are just standing around. “Guys, I need a little help,” Dean yells. “We’re going through all of these CDs. Look for scratches or other wear and tear. I want to know which ones he listens to the most.” If they can figure out which album he listens to the most, they might be able to figure out his password from there.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Sam is sitting at the Svenson’s kitchen table typing away at one of the FBI issued laptops they brought with them. He’s been going through all of the people who were incarcerated in the same prison as Svenson and who also fit the aspects of the profile that the dominant personality would fit. He looks up when he feels Gabriel approach him.

“I think it’s his old cell-mate,” Sam tells him. He pulls up a picture of a burly man who looks like he’d beat someone up for just looking at him funny.

“It fits. He’s bigger and tougher, and he could’ve protected Svenson from the other inmates while they were in prison,” Gabriel says before starting to walk away. “Good job.”

“Are you going to bring Dean up on disciplinary charges?” Sam asks quickly before Gabriel can leave. The shorter man stops mid-step and turns back around.

“I’m sure he and Cassie will be able to work things out on their own,” Gabriel answers diplomatically. “Now go help your brother try to figure out Svenson’s password.”

“Do you know why he always introduces me as _Dr_. Sam Winchester?” Sam asks him.

“Because he knows that people see you as a kid, and he wants to make sure they respect you,” Gabriel replies. Sam isn’t sure if that’s all there is to it, but he nods anyways. “What’s the address for the inmate?” Gabriel asks.

Sam clicks a few times on the keyboard before he pulls up the correct information. “It’s not him.”

“What do you mean?”

“He died a year ago in a car crash,” Sam says. Gabriel sighs. That means they have to go back to square one.

Gabriel runs his hand through his medium-length hair. “Go upstairs and help your brother. I’m going to tell Castiel to take Jo to the prison. Maybe one of the guards who works there will remember anyone else who could fit our profile.”

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Castiel and Dean have been staring at these CDs for what feels like days, but he knows it’s probably only been about an hour. Dean is humming something under his breath, and he keeps mentioning that it’s too bad Svenson is a psychopathic killer because he has a “good taste for the classics.” Castiel doesn’t recognize most of these bands, but he’ll take Dean’s word for it.

They’re interrupted by Jo and Sam peeking into the room from the top of the stairs. It seems Gabe has enlisted Sam to help Dean out with the CDs while Castiel drives Jo over to the prison. Apparently she doesn’t have a driver’s license even though she’s twenty-three, so she needs Castiel to drive her. Apart from that, she’s too new of an agent to go out in the field by herself anyways.

The beginning of the drive to the prison is a bit of an awkward affair. Jo seemed pretty bubbly with the rest of the group, but she’s been quiet since they left together. Castiel isn’t sure if that’s because his own awkwardness is rubbing off on her, or if she doesn’t like him for some reason.

“What made you decide you wanted to join the BAU?” Castiel asks to break the awkward silence.

“Well Bobby Singer is actually my step-father,” Jo starts. “So that’s how I knew about the actual program. I’ve always wanted to join the FBI though because my dad was in it.” She looks over at him sadly. “He passed away when I was a kid.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Castiel says sympathetically.

“I want to do the job for him, you know?” Jo asks and Castiel understands that completely. He actually got into criminal psychology for a very similar reason, but he doesn’t feel comfortable sharing that with anyone yet. “My mom wasn’t too thrilled when I applied for the academy since she’d lost my father and then she still has to worry about Bobby. I think she feels slightly better knowing that he’s there to keep an eye out for me, but that’s also annoying in itself because I’m not a kid anymore.”

“I understand that,” Castiel says. “My wife is very understanding when it comes to the demands of the job, but she does still worry. It’s kind of hard not to with what we do.” He shoots Jo a small smile which she returns.

They’re both quiet for a few more minutes while Castiel drives them out of town and towards the edge of the country where the prison is located. After a little while Jo speaks again. “Thank you.”

“For what?” Castiel asks, confused.

“For not immediately making the assumption that the reason I’m the first recruit to get a spot at the BAU directly out of the academy is because my step-father is the Head of the BAU.” Jo’s tone is angry, and Castiel feels angry himself. Anyone with eyes and a brain should be able to see how hard Jo works and how gifted she is at profiling even though she’s only been doing it a few months. Plus he knows what it feels like for people to judge his achievements based on his own familial ties.

“And thank you for not assuming the reason I got the Assistant Unit Chief position is because Gabriel is my half-brother,” he shoots her a little wink, and she giggles. When he thinks about it, it is a bit hilarious that the BAU is made up of a bunch of families. There’s Bobby and Jo, Gabriel and himself obviously, and then Sam and Dean. Castiel smiles and wonders what the odds of that are. Maybe this really is a family business.

They pull up to the prison fifteen minutes later. They’d scheduled a meeting with Keith Jespersen who apparently is the guard who worked in Richard Svenson’s cell block when he was a prisoner here. When they meet up with Keith, they explain that they were originally here to ask about Svenson’s old cell mate, but since he is dead they want to know if there’s anyone else who had relationships with Svenson while he was in prison.

“Talk about scum, man,” Jespersen says. “I can’t tell you how many times I had to lock Vogel in solitary for causing problems.” Rob Vogel was Svenson’s old cell mate. “You would think the inmates would care more about staying on our good side. Especially since half of our job as security guards is keeping them safe from each other.”

That catches Castiel’s attention. “You protect them?” He asks, and he can feel Jo turn to look at him.

“Yeah,” Jespersen says and then lowers his voice to a whisper. “If you’re a scrawny white guy in a prison like this…”

“What about a small guy like Svenson?” Castiel asks.

Jespersen nods quickly and then fumbles as he tries to open the door to the cell block with the keys attached to his belt. While he’s fumbling Castiel notices a key fob that belongs to a Jeep. This could be their guy! Castiel quickly thanks him for his help and then walks briskly with Jo back to their SUV. “He protected Richard in prison, befriended him, and made him feel like he owed him.”

“He fits the profile,” Jo says. “His work in the criminal justice system would give him enough knowledge of law enforcement to take forensic countermeasures against getting caught.” She has to walk quickly to keep up with Castiel’s longer legs. “And did you see them?”

“His keys,” Castiel says with a smile. Of course Jo had noticed them too. She doesn’t seem to miss much. He pulls out his cell to call Gabriel. “Gabe,” Castiel says after he answers on the first ring. “We found the partner. His name is Keith Jespersen. He was a security guard while Richard Svenson was in prison.”

Castiel can hear Gabriel say something to the police on the other side of the line, but he can’t make out exact words. “Okay, Cassie, I’m going to head back to the field office to interrogate Svenson. You tail this guy and make sure he doesn’t get away.” Gabriel hangs up, and Castiel and Jo get back into the SUV to wait for Jesperson to come out.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

It’s close to 2am by the time Gabriel gets back to the precinct. It’s not that traffic was bad at this time of night, but since he’s in charge of the investigation, he has to constantly make sure all of his ducks are in a row. When he gets to the field office, the cops tell him that they’re holding Richard Svenson in interrogation room one when he’s ready. Gabriel knows how this game is played, and he knows that Svenson has experience being interrogated so he’s not going to rush in there. They still have a few hours to find this girl.

He turns the air conditioning in the interrogation room down so Svenson will get a bit uncomfortable. Then he looks at the other two cops in the room. “I need you to get some file boxes and fill them up with papers. I don’t care if they’re blank. Make sure you write ‘Keith Jesperson’ on the side.” That’s a basic interrogation technique that the FBI has been using for a while now. If someone sees a box of files with their or their partner’s name on the side, it can make them nervous and think that the cops are already mounting a huge case against them.

Once the cops have assembled what he needs, Gabriel takes one of the boxes and steps into the interrogation room. “Two years of investigative work, one file.” He puts the box down on the table. “But it’s not your file, Richard Svenson.” Gabriel shoves the box forward so Svenson can read the name of his partner on the side of the box. “We don’t care about you. We want to know about him.”  
  


Gabriel watches the suspect closely while he begins to sweat. He can tell he’s trying to keep his cool, but he’s getting nervous. As the submissive partner, he’ll be easier to break even though he’s more intelligent than Keith Jesperson is. Gabriel just hopes he can crack him before Jesperson can finish off Ashley Frank.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

They’ve have been going through all of these CDs for over three hours now, and Dean’s head is spinning. Sam is sitting on Svenson’s bed twirling a CD around in his hands while he thinks. He’s able to keep his emotions more in check than Dean is. Sam looks at everything as a puzzle to solve, and he doesn’t get frustrated if he can’t solve it because he knows that eventually he’ll be able to. Dean doesn't think Sam has met a puzzle or problem he hasn't been able to figure out eventually with that gigantic brain of his. Dean, on the other hand, has a very short fuse, so he ran out of his store of patience about an hour ago. Now he’s about a minute away from tearing his hair out.

“Password, password, come on!” Dean paces back and forth muttering to himself. Sam stands up abruptly and walks over towards him.

“I had a thought about the CDs,” Sam says.

Dean sighs. “Sammy, we’ve been over the CDs. It’s gotta be something else.” Dean taps his fingers agitatedly against his leg. “We have to find it or this girl is dead.”

Sam squats down next to the laptop and clicks open the disk slot. “I think we missed the obvious answer.” When the disk slot opens up it reveals a well-used Metallica album.

Dean picks it up excitedly. “Sam, what made you think of this?”

Sam holds up the empty disk case. “It was the only CD case that was empty.”

Dean’s face lights up in a smile. “You’re a freak, and I love you.”

“Jerk,” Sam says, but there isn’t any heat behind it. Dean immediately starts working on figuring out the password based on the CD. Maybe they’ll be able to crack this computer open before they run out of time.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

It’s almost three, and Gabriel has been interrogating this kid for an hour now. He isn’t about to give up though. He still has a few more tricks up his sleeve.

“You say you were just selling Ashley Frank a car,” Gabriel leads him, and Svenson nods. “Do you know how salesmen get someone to buy a car? It’s called reciprocity. You lower the price, promise to give them a deal, and they feel obligated to buy it because you’ve done them a favor. It’s such a small favor, but it puts the pressure on the buyer to put down a deposit for a car they don’t even want.”

“What is your point?” Svenson asks, frustrated.

“Jesperson did you a favor,” Gabriel turns around to face him. “He protected you from those bigger guys when you were in prison, and now you think you owe him.” He can see Svenson’s face tighten, but the kid doesn’t say anything. “People like Jesperson learn early on in life which kids to bully and which to protect, and he’s got you convinced that you owe him so much that you’ll go to jail for murders you didn’t commit.” Gabriel waits a moment to see if the kid is going to say anything, but he doesn’t. “Richard, you don’t owe him anything.”

Richard just smirks and says, “Whatever, man.” Gabriel sighs. He’s not going to be able to crack him, or at least not in time to save Ashley Frank.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Castiel and Jo watch as Keith Jesperson’s Jeep pulls out of the prison lot and leaves the facility. Castiel starts his car and follows behind at the distance they’re taught to pursue a vehicle, close enough that they don’t lose them, but far enough away that they’re not noticeable.

They follow behind him for about ten minutes, and Castiel can tell that Jo is starting to get antsy. “What’s wrong?” He asks her.

“Something about this isn’t right,” Jo says. “I think we should pull him over.”

Castiel continues to follow Jesperson at a leisurely pace. “You have incredible instincts, Jo, and I can tell you’re going to grow to be an amazing asset to the BAU, but you’re too impatient.” Castiel isn’t trying to be harsh, but in his position as Assistant Unit Chief, he needs to take on a teaching role with the other agents. That means sometimes he’s going to have to hurt their feelings a bit in order to get the job done. Jo sits quietly next to him, and he can’t tell if she’s upset or not. “If you want me to pull this guy over, you need to point to something in his behavior that convinces me it’s the right call.”

He looks over at Jo quickly and sees that she has her thinking face on. Her eyebrows get furrowed and her brown eyes become tight and focused. “Jesperson was agitated and nervous when we left the prison,” she says confidently. “He could tell we were onto him or at least starting to suspect him.” Castiel nods to show he’s with her so far. “But now look at how he’s driving.” Jo gestures to the Jeep ahead of them. “He’s stopping at every yellow light and using his blinker every time he switches lanes. This isn’t someone who is rushing to go kill and dump a body.”

That's good enough for him. He reaches over and flips on the siren and lights. He can see Jo start to smile out of the corner of his eyes, and if he wasn’t about to pull over a potentially armed and dangerous suspect, he’d be smiling too. She’s good!

Once the Jeep in front of them stops, the two of them draw their weapons and get out of the car to approach the suspect. “FBI, put both of your hands out the window!” Jo yells. The man in the car puts both of his hands out of the window immediately, and Castiel breathes a sigh of relief when he sees that both hands are empty. The two of them start approaching the car but keep their guns raised. “Now, I want you to slowly open the car door from the outside,” Jo says firmly.

The man does as she says, and as soon as the door is open Jo grabs his wrist and forcibly pulls him out of the car before spinning him around and taking him to the ground so she can restrain him. Castiel barely has time to be impressed at how Jo is able to handle herself so well even though she’s relatively tiny because the guy who is on the ground is not Keith Jesperson.

“Where is Jesperson?” Castiel yells at him.

“I don’t know!” The man says.

“Why are you driving his car?”

“He stopped me after our shift and asked if he could borrow my truck,” the man says shakily. “He gave me his keys to drive his car home and said he’d swap back the vehicles tomorrow at work.”

“He’s dumping the body,” Jo gasps.

“What’s the make of the truck?” Castiel shouts.

“It’s a silver Ford F150!” Jo gets up off of the man and runs back to their SUV with Castiel right behind her. They speed off in the direction of the field office, but Castiel hopes one of his team members can give him a location so they can get there before Jesperson. If they don’t find him soon, Ashley Frank won’t last much longer.

He pulls out his company cell phone and hits a random number on speed-dial. He knows that all of his team’s numbers are on speed-dial, and since he’s focused on driving he doesn’t have time to pull up Gabriel’s number specifically. He figures whoever he gets in contact with will be able to help him.

Someone picks up the phone after the first ring. “Castiel.” It’s Dean. “Ashley Frank is alive.”

“How do you know?” Castiel asks as he takes the next turn way too fast. After he makes the turn he shoots an apologetic look towards Jo who is gripping the sides of her seat with white knuckles.

“Because we can see her right now,” Dean says. “We finally got into Svenson’s computer and there’s a live webcam trained on her. Her eyes are covered with duct tape, and she’s bound and gagged, but she’s definitely alive.”

Castiel hangs up without saying anything else. He figures Dean will understand that time is everything right now. He tosses the phone to Jo. “Get Gabriel on the phone.” She hits the correct number on speed-dial. All of their phones are set up the same way so they can keep things simple and easy to remember. She hands the phone back to him while it rings.

When Gabriel finally answers, Castiel quickly says, “Gabe, he’s going to kill her. He’s on his way there right now. I need a location.”

“Svenson clammed up,” Gabriel says. “I don’t have time to get it out of him.”

“You better figure something out, Gabe, or that girl is dead!”

Castiel hears Gabriel curse quietly over the phone before he responds. “Give me one minute, and I’ll call you right back.” The line goes dead, and he hands the phone back to Jo. They don’t say anything as Castiel continues to drive in no particular direction. They both know the odds here. They’re running out of time, and Jesperson has a big head start on them. They’ll be lucky if they can get there before it's too late.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Dean taps his foot impatiently while he sits at the computer and flips through screenshots of the webcam feed trying to find anything that could give them a location. There’s nothing distinguishable in the room Ashley Frank is being held in. She’s in a cage that’s bigger than a dog cage, but not big enough that she can really move around much. Other than that there isn’t really anything of note in whatever room she’s in. The webcam is in greyscale, but he can tell it’s pretty dark in the room except for some sort of light hanging from the ceiling.

“Wait a second,” Sam interrupts from behind Dean as he flips through the screenshots. “Can you display the last ten frames next to each other on the screen?”

“Yeah, give me a second.” Dean types a few things into the computer and pulls up the screenshots in a row. The two of them look at the images side by side, but Dean still doesn’t notice anything out of place.

“There!” Sam points at the light hanging from the ceiling. “The light is shifting positions.” Dean looks again and sees that Sam is right. The light is moving as if it’s swinging back and forth. What could cause that?

“There haven’t been any earthquakes today right?” He asks.

“Not an earthquake,” Sam gasps. “It’s the ocean! He’s keeping her on a boat.”

Dean immediately picks up his cellphone and calls Gabriel. “Milton! He’s got her on a boat.”

“You’re sure?” Gabriel responds.

“Definitely,” Dean says. “It would have to be by a dock because he wouldn’t be able to transmit the webcam feed if he was on the open ocean.” He can hear Gabriel walking through the phone line, but he doesn’t say anything. “I know it’s not much to go on, but it’s the best we have. Even so, getting the exact location is on you, buddy.”

Gabriel chuckles, “What is it you always ask Charlie?”

“To take a shot of Felix Felicis for me,” Dean smiles.

“Alright, Dean-o, I want you to stay on the line. I’m going to go talk to this guy and see if I can wring out a location from him.” Dean doesn’t reply, but he stays on the line. He can feel Sam leaning in way too close behind him to try and hear so he puts the phone on speaker. “Alright, Richard,” Dean hears Gabriel say sternly. “Jesperson is telling us everything, and he’s blaming you.” Dean hears someone scoff in the background, and he assumes it’s Svenson. “He told us it was your idea to keep the girls on a boat.” There’s nothing but silence on the other end, so Dean figures Gabriel managed to catch him off guard. “He’s talking, Richard. Tell me where she is, and I can make a deal for you.”

There’s another momentary pause before Svenson speaks again. “It’s a shipyard.” He gives Gabriel the exact address, and Dean copies it down while he’s listening. As he writes it down, Sam puts it into the computer to look up where it is.

“You hear that Dean-o?” Gabriel asks. “Call Castiel!” Dean immediately hangs up the phone and dials Castiel’s number.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Castiel desperately hopes this is the right location and that Svenson wasn’t just jerking them around. He also hopes they’re not too late. Jo gets out of the car the second he puts it in park, and he follows quickly after. He does step in front of her because he doesn’t want her in the line of fire in case anything goes wrong. Just as they’re stepping out onto the pier Jesperson comes out of one of the cargo containers dragging Ashley Frank by her bound hands. She’s alive, but still blindfolded and gagged. Castiel points his gun at the killer who immediately aims his own gun at Ashley Frank’s head. “Put the gun down or I’ll shoot her!” he yells.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Castiel warns. “If you shoot her, you’ve lost your leverage. You should point the gun at me instead.” He can see Jo moving around to the side of one of the cargo containers and out of view of Jesperson. She doesn’t have a clear shot on him though. Castiel needs to get him to drop the girl. “Shoot me instead,” he says. “Wide open target here!” Castiel spreads his arms out, lowering his gun.

“Is this some sort of trick?” Jesperson asks. “Do you think I’m stupid?”

“I think you’re an absolute moron,” Castiel says. “I think you’re a pathetic loser who can’t get it up. Viagra, Cialis... it doesn’t matter, you’ve tried them all. I think you’re hopelessly overcompensating by going to the gym five days a week, but nothing is working is it?”

“Shut up!”

“It’s not all in your head,” Castiel continues, raising his voice. “It’s physical. Hard to get it up when there’s not much there to begin with, isn’t it?” His words have their intended effect. Jesperson drops the girl and is able to fire off one shot at Castiel before Jo takes him down with a bullet to the leg.

Castiel gets hit in his upper arm, and he slumps down onto the pier. He motions to Jo that he’s alright, and she quickly runs over to Jesperson to kick his gun away and untie Ashley Frank from her bindings. Castiel hears sirens pull up behind them and relaxes a bit further onto the pier now that he knows their backup has arrived.

“Novak?” Dean rushes forward to check on him while Sam runs down the pier to help Jo. Dean checks out his arm and pulls off his tie so he can wrap it around his arm like a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. “That was a bonehead move back there,” Dean says quietly. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed.’

“I took a calculated risk,” Castiel grunts.

“It paid off this time, but you should be more careful,” Dean sounds frustrated.

“Wow, Dean, I didn’t know you cared,” Castiel deadpans. Dean abruptly stops tying off the tourniquet for a second as if Castiel’s joke caught him off-guard. He chuckles and finishes up his makeshift bandage. The paramedics will be able to fix him up better when they get here, but this will hold until then.

By the time they get back onto their plane to head back to Virginia, it’s already Monday afternoon. They’d spent the last over forty-eight hours existing on nothing but adrenaline and coffee. It’s something the others are used to, but it’s going to take Castiel some time to adjust. He’s so tired he feels like he got ran over by a truck.

On the plane there are two couches that face each other towards the back by the bathroom. Further towards the front are the more fancy seats that are typically found on private jets. Dean and Sam immediately claimed the couches when they got to the plane. Apparently that’s the equivalent of calling shot-gun for this team. The two of them are fast asleep before they even take-off. Sam is too tall for the couch so his feet stick off the end of it. Jo is in one of the chairs and has it tilted all the way back so it’s a recliner. She’s listening to something in her headphones and appears to still be awake, but she probably won’t be for much longer. Castiel doesn’t know if he’ll be able to get any sleep. This is all so new to him. He’s been in the FBI for a long time, but working out of Illinois was much different from this job. It’s going to take him a while to get used to this high level of adrenaline and excitement.

He can feel Gabriel sit down in the chair next to him, so he opens his eyes. “Hey,” Gabriel greets him with a brotherly shoulder clap. “How are you feeling?”

Castiel isn’t sure if he’s talking about his bullet wound, how he feels about his first case on the job, or how he’s dealing with the aftermath of the trauma he’d been through. The answer to all of those questions would be ‘not good,’ but Castiel finds himself saying, “I’m alright.” He can tell that Gabe knows he isn't telling the full truth, but also that he doesn’t have the energy to go into it right now.

Gabriel sighs and changes the subject. “Have you and Amelia decided on a baby name yet?”

Castiel laughs. “You know, I hadn’t really thought about it until we were going through names, but when she suggested Jeffrey, all I could think about was—“

“Dahmer,” Gabriel interrupts with a chuckle.

“John…” Castiel prompts.

“Wayne Gacy,” Gabriel finishes, laughing.

“There are just too many of them,” Castiel says, his tone finally revealing his anxiety.

Gabriel’s laugh abruptly cuts off. “Yeah, it’s hard to feel any sense of relief at catching one when we know there are fifty more out there who haven’t been caught yet.”

Castiel feels his chest tightening. “How do you do this job, Gabe?” He asks desperately. “It’s only been two days, and I feel like I’m drowning.”

Understanding fills his brother’s eyes, and he rubs Castiel’s shoulder comfortingly. “Give it time,” Gabe says. “And lean on your team. We are a team for a reason, Cassie. This isn’t the kind of job you can shoulder on your own.” With that said, Gabriel puts on his headphones and closes his eyes, signaling that he’s going to try and get some sleep. Castiel may doze off slightly, but he doesn’t ever fully fall asleep. It’s going to take some time to get used to sleeping on the jet.

When they land, they all sleepily pile into the SUV to take them back to Quantico. “Alrighty guys, I suggest you all go home and get some rest because we’re meeting tomorrow morning at 9 to go over the next case,” Gabriel says. They all groan, but they’re not really upset. Everybody here lives for this job.

They all head out to the employee parking lot where they’ve parked all of their personal cars. Castiel sees Sam and Dean stop next to an old black muscle car. When they see him looking their way, they both wave at him. “See you tomorrow, Cas!” Dean says before getting into the driver’s side of the car. Castiel is too caught off guard by the nickname to say anything back before the boys drive away.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Sam is pretty quiet on the drive back to their shared apartment, but he finally speaks up when they cross over the threshold and close the door. “So, Cas, huh?” He says with a smirk.

Dean rolls his eyes. “Don’t profile me.”

“I’m not,” Sam says hastily. “I’m just glad you two seem to be getting along a bit better than you were when he first showed up.”

Dean puts his go-bag back in the closet where they keep them for easy access. Everything stays packed and ready to go except for the dirty clothes which he throws into his hamper. He’ll deal with those later. Right now he needs to get some decent sleep before their next case. Crime never rests, as they say.

“He’s a weird guy,” Dean says. “A weird, dorky, little guy, but he seems cool. He’s definitely qualified.” Sam is looking at him like he has two heads. “What? I’m just saying the guy has been through a lot, but he knows his stuff.”

“Uh huh,” Sam replies cryptically. Dean doesn’t have time to deal with his brother’s weirdness right now. His memory foam mattress is calling his name. “Bitch,” he says to signal he’s done with this conversation.

“Jerk,” Sam laughs and closes the door to his own bedroom.

Dean flops down on his bed and closes his eyes. All in all, it was a good weekend. At some point he’ll have to call Lisa to apologize and reschedule a time for their “discussion” slash weekend of marathon sex. Maybe next weekend, assuming there isn’t another psychokiller on a rampage that needs to be immediately dealt with.

Before he falls asleep, his last thought is that he hopes Castiel is doing alright wherever he is. Dean knows how hard it is starting out on this job and that’s even without the extra trauma he’s having to deal with right now. As he slips into unconsciousness, Dean makes a promise to help Castiel adjust in any way that he can. He needs to find a way to make up for treating him like an ass when they first met. 


	3. The Incident

The next morning Castiel wakes up after ten hours of restful sleep with Amelia cuddled up into his side. He groans as she starts kissing his neck. He’d love to stay in bed with her, but he needs to get ready for work. It’s already eight, and he has to get to the office by nine.

“Don’t go,” Amelia says. “We didn’t have our weekend time.” She gives him puppy dog eyes that she knows he’s powerless to resist.

He leans over her to give her a lingering kiss. “Gabriel told me that whenever we get called out to work on the weekends, Bobby gives us weekdays off to make up for it. Hopefully that means I’ll get a three day weekend with you.”

She gives him one final kiss before he has to pull himself away. “You better.” Castiel steps over to their walk-in closet and starts putting on his usual suit and tie. He tends to wear navy suits because he’s been told they bring out the blue in his eyes. Castiel hasn’t ever really thought about his appearance as being attractive, though he’s been told it is. He tends to focus more on his body’s abilities than on his appearance. He does, however, know that his eyes are incredibly blue and can be disarming to some when combined with his tendency to stare at people for too long. He looks up when he hears Amelia sigh from where she’s still laying on the bed.

Castiel turns around to look at her while he buttons up his shirt. “What?”

“You know, it’s really unfair of you to look like that when you have to leave in a few minutes,” she sighs dramatically, and he chuckles. She gets out of bed and comes up behind him to give him a quick kiss on the neck before whispering, “Most people are only sexy when they take off their clothes, but my dreamy husband makes putting them on sexy too.”

Castiel laughs, “Your pregnancy hormones are out of control, babe.” He gives her another short kiss before promising to make it up to her when he gets home. Castiel is just picking up his go-bag when Amelia says softly, “I had a dream we named our son, Jack.”

He stops mid-step and turns around. Amelia has a sheepish smile on her face, and Castiel feels like his heart is about to implode. That’s the one. “Jack,” he says with a smile, tears starting to build up in his eyes. They’ve been trying to have a child for years now, but for some reason now that they have a name, it feels real.

He leans over to give her a final kiss on the forehead before telling her he’ll call whenever he figures out where he’s going. At this point he’s not even sure if they’ll be going anywhere or if they’re staying in town. It depends on which cities need their help. Sometimes police precincts just need them to go over a case to see if they’re on the right track without actually needing them to fly out and help with the investigation.

When he gets to the BAU, Jo greets him enthusiastically and takes him upstairs to show him his office. He hadn’t actually had a chance to look at it the other day since they’d been called in so abruptly. The space is small and the walls are blank, but Castiel does feel a hint of pride when he sees they’ve already added a plaque to the door with his name on it. He supposes that means he can’t quit now. He thanks Jo and begins to arrange what few things he brought with him around the space. Maybe he’ll be able to fit in here after all.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Dean tries his best to hold in his laugh while he watches Bobby kick Sam’s ass at poker yet again. Bobby has been trying to teach him the ins and outs of how to play, but even though Sam is a genius, he’s been having a hard time picking it up. It’s hilarious to watch.

He looks up towards Castiel’s new office that’s right next to Gabriel’s office and makes eye contact with his new boss. Embarrassed at being caught staring, which he wasn’t by the way, Dean nods his head slightly in the universal greeting that guys use when they make awkward eye contact with someone. Castiel tilts his head in confusion as Dean has seen him do a few times in the short time he’s known him. Well, it’s a mostly universal greeting.

Dean turns back around when Sam groans in frustration at losing another hand. “You’ll get there eventually, son,” Bobby says with a chuckle. The older man stands up abruptly, and all of their eyes move to look at whatever prompted him to stand up.

A cute blonde girl Dean hasn’t seen before is standing by the glass doors to the BAU holding a manila envelope. She looks like she’s in her early to mid-twenties. Dean is about to raise his eyebrows at his brother in their silent language to say ‘wow she’s cute,’ but he stops when he sees the look on Sam’s face. He is looking at her with heart eyes, and Dean tries not to chuckle. She is so far out of his league, but if he wants to shoot his shot, Dean will let him. He has Lisa anyways.

“Everyone, listen up!” Bobby raises his voice to get everyone’s attention. Gabriel and Castiel step out of their offices and walk down the stairs to join up with the rest of the team. “This here is Special Agent Jessica Moore,” Bobby says and Jessica gives a shy wave. “She’s our new unit liaison. Her job is to communicate with the media as well as the various law enforcement agencies we’ll be dealing with.”

“Thank goodness,” Gabriel sighs and everyone laughs. Gabe has made it no secret that he isn’t a fan of the communication aspect of being the Unit Chief. He’d much rather profile and work in the field.

“She’s also going to be in charge of choosing which cases we take, with my input of course,” Bobby says. “Jessica, this is Sam and Dean Winchester, they’re brothers.” Dean waves first and Sam joins him a bit late, blushing. God, he’s a mess. “This is Gabriel Milton, Unit Chief, and Castiel Novak, Assistant Unit Chief. They’re also brothers.” Jessica raises her eyebrows at that. Dean realizes it is a bit odd that there are so many relatives working in this team. “And this is Jo Harvelle, my step-daughter. As you can see we’re quite the family here.”

“Wow,” Jessica says quietly. She seems a bit overwhelmed. “Well I’m excited to work with all of you. I do have a case for you guys already.” She points to the envelope she’s holding.

“You heard her,” Bobby says. “Get to the conference room, idjits!” Everyone files into their conference room, and Dean is very aware of how close Castiel is standing to him. Something about his new boss makes him a bit nervous, and Dean’s not sure why that is. It’s probably because he just met the guy.

“There were three bombings this morning all taking place in residential areas in the suburbs of Miami,” Jessica begins.

“Has Homeland Security been notified?” Gabriel asks.

“Yes. They are going to want a threat assessment as well as a profile of the bomber,” Jessica responds. “I’m trying to keep a clamp on the media so it doesn’t cause a panic, but we should prepare for the story to come out at some point.”

“They already sent over some pictures of the bomb fragments so we can start looking at those,” Bobby says, pulling up the pictures on the projector.

“It’s a pipe bomb,” Dean says. Out of all the members of the BAU, he is the one with the most bomb squad experience.

“The witness of the third bombing said it was in a package,” Jessica says.

“Do you think they were sent through the mail?” Jo asks.

“No,” Dean replies, pointing to another picture of a bomb fragment. “This piece right here is a tube that was filled with mercury. The bomb would ignite the second that the package was tilted, which means it couldn’t have been sent by mail. The bomber would have to deliver the package himself.”

Castiel speaks up from right beside Dean, making him jump slightly. “It’s not a very good method for domestic terrorism. The bombs are small scale, and he detonated them in residential areas. Why?”

Bobby turns to Gabriel and Castiel. “I recommend not raising the terror alert level yet. We don’t want to start a panic before we know if this was or wasn’t an act of terrorism.”

“Uh, I think it might be too late for that,” Jessica says quietly, pointing at the TV. Bobby picks up the remote and unmutes it. On the screen is live news coverage from outside the house where the third bomb was detonated. “This is just a local station, but the bigger news outlets caught wind of it, and now it’s everywhere.”

“So much for not spreading panic,” Gabriel mumbles. Just then there’s a fourth explosion in the street right behind where the live coverage is being filmed. Everyone in the room grows silent until Gabriel speaks up again. “I guess we’re going to Miami. I want everyone at the airstrip in fifteen minutes.”

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Dean has to jog to catch up to Gabriel before he leaves the building to get on the plane. As much as he loves being in the field, he knows this time that his skills will be best used right here. “Milton!” He huffs, out of breath just from running down the long hallway. “They’re going to send the bomb fragments here to the lab. I’m the only one on the team with bomb squad experience, so I think I should stay behind to work on piecing it back together when it gets here.”

Gabriel turns around to look at him, a smirk on his face. “Winchester, you aren’t afraid to go out in the field when we’re dealing with a bomber are you?”

Dean chuckles. “Maybe it’s not the bomber I’m worried about,” he says pointedly.

Gabriel’s eyes harden. “I thought we were past this.”

“Gabriel, Chicago sent Novak into a post traumatic meltdown. Do you really think he’s ready to work in the field on another bombing case?”

“I think you need to spend your time profiling the bomber and not my brother,” Gabriel says darkly before turning and walking away before Dean has a chance to respond.

Dean sighs, “Okay, boss.”

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Castiel wonders how long it’s going to take for him to get used to traveling the United States at the drop of a hat, not to mention the fact that they get to do it in a fancy private jet. The seats towards the front half of the plane have small tables in front of them that everyone has spread out their files on. Castiel takes a sip of his coffee and tries his best to focus on what his teammates are discussing, but his anxiety is through the roof right now. He’d been hoping they wouldn’t have to work on a bombing case for a while. He’s not ready.

“The first two victims’ houses are within five miles of each other,” Gabriel says. “First victim was a seventy-two year old widower who lived alone, and the second was a twenty-one year old university student. Third victim is Phil Nichols, a fifty year old businessman. He’s the only one who survived the blast, but he was injured. The first three bombings happened over the course of four hours, and we all saw the fourth one happen live.”

“Is there any connection between the victims?” Sam asks.

“Nichols was running a start-up company and convinced the first victim to invest a bunch of money into it,” Gabriel says. “The second victim was a business student who was using Nichols’ business plan for her thesis. The business went under a few months ago. This deal lost a lot of people a lot of money, so it’s a possibility that one of the people affected may be behind the bombing.”

Castiel takes a deep breath in through his nose and lets it out slowly through his mouth. He’s okay. He can do this. “Hang on a second,” he says. “It’s a little early to be theorizing about motive.”

“Then where do we start?” Jo asks, always eager to learn.

“From the beginning,” Castiel says. “What do we know about bombers?”

Of course it’s Sam who speaks up first. “Mostly male loners with a criminal history. Often bombers end up accidentally blowing themselves up with their bombs so we should assume this guy Nichols is a suspect until we can clear him. Especially with how he recently lost that business deal. That could be a big stressor.”

Castiel picks up one of the crime scene photos. “There’s also the fact that the Nichols’ crime scene was different from the other two. The first two victims were attacked when they tried to move the packages from where they’d been placed on their porches to inside their houses. Nichols was by his car when the bomb went off.”

Gabriel speaks up again, “Nichols was able to tell the paramedics who arrived on the scene that the package was on his front porch, and he was moving it to his car when it went off.”

Castiel looks across from him and sees that Sam’s eyebrows are furrowed like he’s thinking. “Why didn’t he take the package inside like the others?” He asks. “And why didn’t it go off before he got to the car? That’s a pretty long distance to walk with a bomb this temperamental.”

“According to a witness, Nichols was trying to get into his car with the package when the bomb went off,” Jessica says. It’s the first time she’s spoken since boarding the plane. Castiel can tell she’s a bit nervous to be on her first case in the field. He knows the feeling.

“It could be that Nichols was on his way to deliver the package and accidentally tilted it or dropped it himself,” Castiel muses. As Sam said earlier, bombers often accidentally blow themselves up. “When we land, I’m going to go to the hospital to talk to Nichols. We should also get a warrant to search his house.”

After they’re done coming up with a game-plan, Castiel sits back in his chair and tries his best to relax. They land after a couple of hours. The first thing he does when they get out of the airport is call Amelia. He’d promised to keep her updated on where he is, and he intends to keep that promise. It’s the least he can do to make up for having to travel constantly.

“Hey, you,” she answers the phone, and he can hear her smile clearly. Just hearing that makes his nerves ebb away slightly.

“We just landed in Miami,” Castiel says. “I wanted to let you know.”

“Miami,” she says. “Let me guess, you’re there because of the bombing.”

Castiel isn’t surprised she’s heard about it. They’ve been playing the clip of the bombing that was caught live on every news station for the past two hours. Even though this isn’t a terror attack, the media can’t help themselves from overreacting. “Yes, we’re here because of the bombing, but don’t worry, it’s not terrorism. I’m not sure what the news is saying, but this is most likely a revenge bombing.”

There’s a pause on the other end, and when Amelia speaks again he can tell she isn’t smiling. “Are you alright?” She asks.

Castiel tries his best to keep his voice light when he answers, “Yeah I’m doing okay,” but he isn’t. He’s far from okay. Ever since he saw that news clip of the live bombing, all he sees when he closes his eyes is Samandriel’s lifeless body and blood on his own hands.

“If you say so,” she replies, but he can tell she doesn’t believe him. “Promise me you’ll stay safe.”

“I always do,” Castiel says. That much he can promise at least. He hangs up the phone and counts methodically to one hundred to try and calm himself down. That’s a trick he learned during his mandated post-traumatic incident counseling. He’s not sure if it’s working.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Dean has a mess of crime scene photos spread out across the cold steel table in their crime lab. He’s trying to get a head start on figuring out how this bomb will fit together while he waits for the fragments to arrive. They should be here any minute.

Right as he has that thought Charlie opens the door holding a big silver box. “I come bearing gifts.”

Dean grins excitedly. Bombings are awful of course, but he does love putting bomb fragments back together. He’s always been good at working with his hands, and each bomb is like a puzzle to him. Sam enjoys mental puzzles, and Dean enjoys physical puzzles he can feel and manipulate as he figures them out.

“Now we can start putting this bad boy back together.” Dean opens up the box and starts taking out the many fragments that have each been individually packaged in clear evidence bags.

“Don’t you just need to check the pieces for fingerprints and stuff?” Charlie asks.

Dean laughs, “Charlie, why the hell are you in the FBI?”

“Because I got kicked out of college,” she replies with a laugh.

“Well that makes sense,” Dean chuckles, and Charlie punches him lightly on the arm. He fakes being hurt for a second before getting serious again. “How these things are put together can tell us a lot about how the unsub thinks.”

“You sound like Gabriel.”

“Ouch,” Dean says. “That hurt more than the punch.” Charlie giggles. He pulls out the first piece and studies it for a moment. “Take this piece for example.” He takes it out of the evidence bag and turns it around so he can see it from all angles. He immediately knows what it is. “This right here is part of the cap that was connected to this piece right here.” He holds up a second piece. “They fit together like this.” He makes sure Charlie can see what he’s doing. When she nods, he continues explaining it. “The unsub would have to be very careful when putting this together because if even one grain of powder got into that piece while he was screwing it on, that little bit of friction would be enough to set off the bomb.” He claps his hands loudly, and Charlie jumps. “Then it would be bye-bye, bomber.” He puts the pieces to the side. “He didn’t have to use a powder this fine, and he didn’t even have to use this shape of pipe, but if he hadn’t then the bomb would’ve been much less powerful. So what does it tell us that he took the risk to make it this way?”

“That he’s one sick fuck?” Charlie asks.

“To say the least,” Dean chuckles. “One sick fuck whose motive is to kill. Not injure or make a political statement. Kill.” The two of them look at each other quietly as the seriousness of the situation fully sinks in. This is going to happen again soon if they can’t figure out who the bomber is.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Castiel parks in front of the hospital where Phil Nichols has been admitted. He’s clenching the steering wheel tightly to keep his hands from shaking. Sam is riding with him while Gabriel and Jo are back at Nichols’ house trying to figure out if there’s any chance he could be the bomber. Sam looks over at him with an encouraging smile as they step out of the car and walk towards the hospital entrance.

He’s relieved that it’s Sam who got assigned to join him today and not Dean. The older Winchester still seems a bit wary of him even after they’d had a brief heart-to-heart the other day. Castiel is anxious enough having to work another bombing case without having to feel Dean’s eyes on him constantly. Something about his stare makes Castiel feel warm under his skin, and he can’t decide if it’s a good feeling or a bad one.

They walk directly towards the room where Mr. Nichols’ is staying. The doctors had been notified ahead of time about their arrival so they were able to get everything prepared. “Can you tell me about the package, Mr. Nichols?” Castiel asks.

Mr. Nichols clears his throat pitifully before he responds. “I thought I knew what it was. I’d ordered some model train parts over the weekend. I collect them.”

That’s interesting. “Why didn’t you bring the package inside?” Castiel asks.

“I was going to bring it to my office. I put them on shelves on my wall,” Mr. Nichols says hoarsely. “That’s the last thing I remember.”

Castiel can feel Sam cross his arms over his chest behind him, but the young man doesn’t say anything. “A lot of people are angry about that start-up company failing, and they’re angry at you. How does that make you feel?”

“I feel awful about it,” Mr. Nichols says. “I thought it was a sure thing. I was positive it could make a lot of people a lot of money, myself included. All of those investors… I just feel terrible about it.” The man groans in pain. “My leg.” Castiel looks down at the bed where the man’s right leg had to be amputated. It couldn’t be saved after the blast.

“I’ll call a nurse,” he says, motioning for Sam to follow him out of the room. Once they’re out of the room, Castiel picks up his cell and dials Gabriel’s number. When his brother answers the phone, Castiel immediately says, “Nichols isn’t our guy.”

“Are you sure?” Gabriel asks.

“His answers were clear even though he was sedated,” Castiel says. “He displays empathy and genuinely feels bad about the business falling apart.”

“Not to mention he has a hobby unrelated to bomb-making,” Sam speaks up from beside him.

“Sam’s right, this is nothing like a typical bomber profile,” Castiel says.

Gabriel sighs. “Well, we haven’t found anything incriminating at his house either, so I think it’s safe to say we can rule Nichols out as a suspect.” He hangs up the phone, and Castiel and Sam head back outside to the SUV.

Once they get in the car, Sam looks uncomfortable like he wants to say something. “What is it?” Castiel asks.

“I wanted to say I’m sorry,” Sam says hesitantly.

Castiel’s eyes narrow. “For what?”

“It must be hard having to work this case… after what happened.” Castiel looks over at Sam about to come up with an angry retort, but he can see nothing but sympathy on the young agent’s face, none of the harsh judgement that he’s received from his older brother. “And I wanted to apologize for Dean’s behavior. He’s a good guy when you get to know him, but he can be a bit rough around the edges with new people.”

Castiel’s mouth quirks up in a small smile. He figured Dean would be like that, but it’s nice to have it confirmed. “I understand why he’s a bit apprehensive about working with me,” he says. “I am very appreciative that you and the rest of the team have welcomed me with open arms.”

Sam nods. “Dean likes you too, you know.” Castiel raises his eyebrows at that, because he highly doubts the older Winchester likes him. “He does!” Sam insists. “Trust me, if he didn’t like you, you’d know.”

Castiel still isn’t sure if he believes him, but Sam does know Dean better than he ever will. Maybe there’s some other explanation for why Dean seems to shy away from him every time Castiel stands close to him or why he seems to stare at him constantly as if he’s waiting for him to mess up. He shakes his head. He’ll have more time to work on figuring Dean out later. Right now they have an unsub to catch. Castiel starts up the car and drives them back to police headquarters to they can regroup with the team.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Dean groans in frustration as he stares at the two fragments left on the table. It took him a few hours, but he was able to assemble the rest of the bomb except for these last pieces. He has absolutely no clue where they should go. Charlie obviously hasn’t been much help, but she’s good company. Right now she’s walking back and forth playing some new video game on her Nintendo switch.

“So what do you think about Novak?” Charlie says out of nowhere. Dean looks up at her. “He’s pretty dreamy, right?” Correction: Charlie _was_ good company up until now. “You know I don’t swing that way, but if I did, I’d be all over him.” He can feel her eyes on his face, waiting for him to respond to that.

“I don’t swing that way either,” Dean answers automatically, though a small part of his brain is wondering if he might. He’s always had a thing for dark hair. That’s one of the reasons he’s so attracted to Lisa. He didn’t know he had a thing for blue eyes until he met Castiel though. His eyes are piercing, and the way he looks at Dean sometimes like he’s studying him makes him uncomfortable, but in a good way. Dean has no idea why he’s feeling these things because he’s never once thought of himself as being anything but straight.

“Are you sure about that?” Charlie says quietly. She doesn’t say it in a rude way, more like she genuinely cares.

Instead of answering that question Dean says, “He’s our boss, Charlie, and I’m pretty sure he’s married.”

“You happened to notice a ring when you’ve only been around the guy a couple days, but you don’t think he’s dreamy?”

“Charlie…” Dean warns.

“Okay, okay,” she relents. “I was just trying to distract you because it looked like you were two seconds away from bashing your head against the desk.”

Dean looks back down at the two remaining fragments on the table. “I have no idea how these pieces fit on the bomb,” he sighs. “They might not even be connected at all.”

“Well you got most of it,” Charlie pats him on the back. “I give you a B+.”

Dean chuckles, “The problem is that the remaining two pieces could be part of his signature.”

“Signature? Like The Zodiac symbol?” Charlie asks.

“Yeah, exactly like that,” Dean says sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Charlie punches him on the arm again. “I was being serious that time.”

Dean rubs his arm. “The signature is the thing they get off on,” he explains. “Using certain materials to make their bombs, stuff like that. These guys think of themselves as artists. It’s like a way of signing their work.”

Charlie sits down next to him. “And you think if you can figure out where these last pieces go, you can figure out the signature?”

“Maybe. We also keep a database of all re-assembled bombs we’ve come across, so we can check this against those to see if we’ve run into this guy already.”

Charlie thinks for a moment. “What about…” She picks up the two pieces and rotates them around.

“I’ve already tried that,” Dean says.

“No, wait,” Charlie arranges the pieces in a way he hadn’t thought of yet. “Like this.”

Dean stares at it for a moment before his face lights up in a smile. “You are a genius, Charlie!”

She does an exaggerated bow. “That’s why I’m the Queen.”

The joy is short-lived though, because it only takes a second for Dean to remember where he’s seen this bomb before. “Fuck, I know this bomb,” he says quietly. “The guy who made it is doing life in federal prison.” Charlie’s face drops to mirror his own. Both of them know exactly what is left unsaid. For the first time today, Dean wishes Castiel had stayed behind with him back in D.C. instead of flying out to Miami.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Gabriel calls the BAU members and the detective in charge of the case into the conference room to show them something. Castiel hopes they’ve caught some sort of break because their one lead, Nichols, went nowhere. Gabriel pulls up a few pictures on his laptop of four reassembled bombs lined up in a row.

“Winchester sent these over from our lab in Quantico,” Gabriel explains. “The three bombs on the left are from this morning, and the one on the right is from our evidence lock-up.”

Sam leans in closer. “They’re identical. Same materials, same structure.”

Castiel feels like his heart is caught in his throat. “Gadreel Penikett,” he gasps.

“Who?” The police detective asks.

Castiel puts his hands down on the desk to support himself so he doesn’t pass out. He feels faint all of a sudden. Thankfully Gabriel speaks up. “He held our agents in a standoff in Chicago six months ago,” he says, just stating the facts with no emotion behind it. “He killed six of our agents plus one hostage.” The detective looks horrified, but he doesn’t know the half of it. Castiel moves over to sit down in one of the chairs surrounding the conference table and takes a sip of water.

“Do you think Gadreel is behind this bombing?” Jo asks.

“He’s locked up in a maximum security prison,” Gabriel says. “It’s not possible. He does have a cult following of fans though, so this could be a copycat.”

“Alright, then let’s go question this guy!” The detective says, standing up.

“No.” Castiel doesn’t say it harshly, but his tone does indicate there’s no room for discussion. Out of everyone on this case, he’s the one who knows Gadreel the best. “Gadreel is too smart for that. If we talk to him, we’re going to need something he wants. Even then we can’t assume that he’ll be of any help to us.”

“Are you saying the connection to Gadreel doesn’t help us at all?” The detective is starting to sound frustrated.

“No,” Castiel responds calmly. “I’m just asking you to let us handle Gadreel.”

“Then what do you want us to do?” The detective asks.

Gabriel stands up. “Gather your men, and we’ll give you the profile.” Gabriel claps Castiel lightly on the shoulder, and he stiffens. Gabriel shoots him a worried look, but doesn’t make a scene about it. He heads out into the bullpen and the other people follow behind. Castiel takes a few deep breaths before he heads to the bullpen to join everyone.

After the incident in Chicago Castiel had developed an aversion to touch. In his mandated therapy sessions, his therapist told him it was common among people who’d been through a traumatic experience. He’d begun to make improvements on it while he was still in Illinois and going to his sessions. He's able to tolerate Amelia’s touch pretty well, but anyone else touching him still sends him into a panic. He didn’t used to be bothered by Gabe’s touch, but Castiel thinks this case might be causing his progress to regress a little bit.

He turns his attention back to Gabriel as he starts to go over the profile. “Bombers tend to be non-confrontational. If you happened to bump into him on the sidewalk, he would apologize profusely. We’re classifying this bomber as highly organized based on the meticulous nature of his crimes, which means he has above average intelligence. He probably has a career where he’s able to work alone. This would give him the privacy he needs to work on his bombs.”

Castiel looks at the room full of police officers all taking notes. Sam and Jo are taking notes as well. The two of them are constantly trying to learn, which Castiel appreciates. He’s still not sure how he feels about working with Dean, but he’s very happy with the rest of his team.

“Do you think he’ll have a background in explosives?” A police officer asks.

Castiel speaks up, “No, you’re thinking of a suspect who wants to blow things up because it gives them a sexual release. Death is a secondary motivation. We’re dealing with a different kind of suspect whose motivation is murder. He uses the bombs as his murder weapon.”

“The most important take-away here is that these attacks are not random,” Gabriel says. “He is choosing these victims for a reason, and if we can figure out that motivation, we’ll be able to catch our unsub.”

“How do you know it’s not random?” Another police officer asks.

“By process of elimination,” Castiel replies. “We know there are three kinds of bombers depending on their motive. There’s the terrorist whose goal is to spread panic, and they usually strike in a public place. There’s the political cause bomber who we expect to target somewhere symbolic like an abortion clinic. Then there’s our unsub who makes his bombs to kill and places them at specific locations to target individual people.”

Gabriel nods in agreement. “All of this reveals that he has a specific motive for the bombings, most likely it’s either profit or to conceal a crime. It also tells us that we’ll be able to catch him through the people he’s targeted.”

“Somewhere between these three victims is a direct motive,” Castiel says. “Keep looking. If you have any questions, we’ll be around.” As the cops disperse and head back to their posts, Castiel leans over to Gabriel. “I’m going to the prison. Someone has to interrogate Gadreel.”

Gabriel tries to grab Castiel’s arm, but he pulls away out of reach. Gabe raises his eyebrows fractionally. “Are you sure you should be the one to go to the prison?” He asks the question innocently, but Castiel knows exactly what he’s leaving unsaid.

“Gabe, I’m fine.”

Gabriel reaches out to him again, and Castiel physically takes a step backwards. “Yes, you’re _fine_.”

Castiel’s eyes harden. “I know Gadreel the best out of anyone here, so unless you have a better suggestion, I’m heading over there now.” Gabriel sighs, but nods. Castiel walks with purpose towards the exit of the building. He keeps his head high and his gaze hard, but all of that collapses the second he’s alone in the elevator. He bends over and grips his knees with his hands as he tries to catch his breath. He hasn’t had this bad of a panic attack in a while. It takes him a few minutes before he’s calmed down enough to be able to get in the SUV and drive over to the prison. He has absolutely no idea how he’s going to be able to interrogate the man responsible for his trauma without letting Gadreel in on how it’s affecting him. He just knows he can’t afford to lose what little control he has left.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Sam sits at the conference table with the other members of his team, minus their newest member Jessica. Sam would be lying if he said he hadn’t had his eyes on her for most of the day. She’s attractive and independent and well educated. What’s not to like?

Speaking of Jessica, she walks into the conference room just then to ask how they’re doing. “We’re trying to figure out what the victims have in common,” Gabriel explains, motioning for her to take a seat at the table.

“I don’t understand why anybody would want to kill a nice old man who collected coins,” Jo says, referring to the first victim.

“Maybe it was about the coins,” Sam suggests. “I spent a chunk of my childhood collecting coins. Some of them can be worth thousands of dollars.” Gabriel, Jo, and Jessica all look over at him. “So I was a bit of a nerd, is that really that surprising?” Sam blushes.

Jessica giggles, and Jo and Gabriel exchange a look before both saying, “No,” at the same time. Sam is really glad Dean isn’t here to witness him making a fool out of himself in front of the cute new unit liason.

The phone on the center of the conference room table rings then, distracting everyone from Sam’s awkward moment. Gabriel hits speaker. “Milton,” he answers simply.

“Gabriel, it’s Dean. We just got the lab results for the powder residue on the bombs.” Sam can tell Dean sounds a bit agitated. It’s probably because he’s stuck back in the lab when he lives for being out in the field. Dean is a team player though which is why he knew his skills would be best used back in the lab for this particular case. “Ammonia nitrate, potassium chloride, and aluminum powder. Nobody uses that mixture except for Gadreel.” Everyone in the conference room looks at each other uneasily. They were pretty sure Gadreel was involved somehow, but this proves it. Dean continues, “The closer I look at these bombs, the more I’ve come to realize they’re exactly like Gadreel’s. This unsub isn’t building bombs, he’s forging them.”

“Thank you, Dean,” Gabriel replies. He’s about to hang up, but Dean interrupts him.

“You’re not going to like this, Milton, but I talked to Bobby,” he says.

“Do I need to take us off of conference call?” Gabriel asks.

There’s a pause on Dean's end of the line, and Sam and Jo make eye contact. It’s clear that both of them are hoping Dean will say no because they want to be let in on whatever is happening.

“Nah, it’s alright if it’s only BAU members in there,” Dean finally says.

“It’s just us,” Gabriel responds. “What did Bobby say?”

“He said we need to be prepared to offer Gadreel some sort of deal,” Dean says hesitantly. Sam can tell he’s seething with anger. “I told him ‘no way’, but he reminded me that we might need his help to catch this guy, if this guy is holding Gadreel up as some sort of mentor.”

Gabriel sighs and runs his hand through his hair. Everyone else in the conference room is silent. “Singer really wants us to consider making a deal with someone who killed six federal agents?”

Dean responds instantly. “He doesn’t want it, but he said we might not have a choice. I just thought I should let you know and…”

“And what?” Gabriel asks, frustrated.

“Maybe you should give Novak a heads up since he’s more personally involved.” Dean’s voice is full of empathy, and Sam can tell that Gabriel notices. He has a sad smile on his face when he thanks Dean for the update and hangs up the phone. Sam can’t help smiling a little bit too. His brother likes to pretend he’s such a tough guy, but he has a soft, chewy center. Sam does find it interesting that Castiel is already starting to bring that protective side out of Dean after only a few days. Usually it takes him much longer to warm up to people. Sam decides then that he’s going to pay extra attention to their interactions to see if he can figure out what makes Novak different in Dean’s eyes.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Castiel spends a few minutes focusing on evening out his breathing before he steps into the room that they’ve brought Gadreel into to talk to him. The area is completely secure of course, and Castiel knows he’s not physically in any danger, but the last time he saw Gadreel had been right before he pushed the button that set off the bomb that killed all of those agents.

He nods to the guard that he’s ready, or at least he’s as ready as he’s ever going to be. The guard brings Gadreel into the room and sits him down on a chair on one side of the table. Gadreel doesn’t even spare a glance towards Castiel.

Castiel nods that the guard can leave, and he stands up against the opposite wall of the small space. “Do you know why I’m here, Gadreel?” He asks.

“The Miami bomber right?” Gadreel says quietly, still not looking at him. “Someone should give him a better name.”

“He uses the exact same method to make his bombs as you did,” Castiel says. He doesn’t want to get a rise out of the prisoner, but he wants him to at least acknowledge that Castiel is here. Gadreel is a textbook psychopath, incapable of empathy. Playing to his emotions won’t get him anywhere, but Castiel has had plenty of experience dealing with men like him.

“He should be careful,” Gadreel finally looks up at him. “Those things are dangerous.” He looks back down at the floor. That’s progress though. At least he acknowledged that Castiel is in the room with him.

“Gadreel, you can’t fool me,” Castiel makes his tone menacing. “If you are in any way involved in what’s happening in Miami and you don’t tell me, I promise you that your life will get much worse than it is right now.”

Gadreel turns to face him with a smile on his face. “Actually, I can fool you, because I’ve done it before.”

Castiel walks over to the table and sits down opposite the prisoner. “I underestimated how merciless you’d be,” he says quietly. “If you hadn’t set off that bomb, you could’ve had the chance at getting parole someday. Now you’re stuck here for the rest of your life.”

“Yeah,” Gadreel sighs and looks up at the ceiling. “I’ve thought a lot about that moment, and there’s one thing I just can’t figure out. Why did you trust me?”

“I didn’t trust you,” Castiel counters immediately.

“You listened to me!”

“I made a mistake,” Castiel says quietly. “I didn’t think you’d do it, but you did.”

“Here’s what I think,” Gadreel leans forward and crosses his hands on top of the table between them. “Sending those agents into the warehouse didn’t make any sense. You said it yourself, I display the homicidal triad. I even came from a broken home. I’m a textbook sociopath.” He laughs maniacally. “I may have given myself up to you, but I was still holding the remote. When I had the opportunity to kill six agents and a hostage, you should’ve known I would do it, no hesitation. The release I felt when I pushed that button,” he grins. “That was too good of an opportunity to pass up.”

Castiel makes sure to keep his face void of emotions, but inside he wants to throw up. He knows Gadreel is right. In hindsight, it’s obvious. How could he have made such a simple mistake?

“Why didn’t you check me for the remote before you sent those agents inside?” Gadreel asks softly. “Why didn’t you do your job, _Agent Novak_?”

Castiel nods slightly, but doesn’t respond. He gets up and leaves the room, telling the guards to have Gadreel available for questioning if they need to speak with him again. He’s barely able to compose himself when he almost bumps into Sam’s hulking frame. He’s very tall considering how youthful his features are.

“Gabriel sent me over to help you,” Sam explains.

Castiel nods. “Gadreel might be involved, but he’s not controlling anything. I know that much.”

“How do you know?” Sam asks curiously.

“If he was behind these bombings, he wouldn’t have been able to resist taunting me with specifics,” Castiel replies. “We should continue to monitor him though. Now that he knows this person is using his design, he’s going to want to find a way to get involved.”

“What should I do?” Sam asks.

“Stay here at the prison,” Castiel says. “Monitor all of his mail, phone calls, and any sort of contact he might have with the outside world.”

Castiel quickly leaves Sam behind and rushes out of the prison as fast as he can without drawing attention to himself. He’s able to get back out to the SUV and close and lock the door behind him before he breaks down. He can feel the blood pumping in his ears in time with his racing heartbeat. His hands shake as he wipes the sweat off on his navy pants. He looks down at the wedding band on his left hand and moves his right hand so he can hold onto it. Anything to try and ground him.

He tries his best to use the tools his therapist taught him for when he’s confronted with a panic attack, but he can’t remember any of them in the moment. All he sees is Samandriel, and he can’t breathe. His fault. It was all his fault.


	4. The Forger

Jo rushes through the halls of the Miami police department trying to find Gabriel. She’d seen the Unit Chief about thirty minutes ago, but now he’s all but disappeared. All of the cops she’s asked haven’t seen him either. Jo knows he wouldn’t just leave the precinct without letting her know, but where is he?

She finally finds him in the records room looking through arrest files with a few other officers. “I think I found something,” she says breathlessly.

Gabriel looks up. “What?”

“The first victim, the older man...The week before he died, he got into an argument with his insurance company," Jo says. "He was trying to get some coins he’d bought insured, but the insurance company thought they were fake.”

Gabriel laughs, “So the insurance company is blowing up annoying customers?”

Jo narrows her eyes at him. “What if someone sold him fake coins, he figured it out, and then someone wanted to shut him up?”

“Were the coins valuable enough to kill over?” Gabriel asks a bit skeptically, looking back down at the file in his hands.

“The victim told the insurance company he thought they were worth over fifty thousand dollars,” Jo says, and Gabriel looks back up at her. That’s definitely a possible motive.

“Do you know who sold him the coins originally?” He asks.

“Unfortunately, no,” Jo says. “He did have an appointment with a coin salesman named Guy Jackson set for next week though. My guess is he wanted to get a second opinion about the validity of the coins.”

Gabriel smiles. This is definitely a lead. “Let’s go check him out!”

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Sam walks through the hallway of the prison trying his best not to get creeped out. He’s been in prisons before obviously, but those times he was always with Dean or Gabriel. This is the first time he’s been in one alone. Well technically Castiel is around here somewhere, but after running into Sam in the hallway, he’d taken off. He looked pretty spooked when Sam saw him, like he’d seen a ghost. Sam doesn’t know all of the details of what happened in Chicago, but he does know that what Castiel went through is what every agent fears. That’s why it pisses him off so much that Dean has been judging Novak so harshly since he got here.

Sam pulls out his work cellphone and hits the number ‘6’ on speed dial to call Charlie. “Office of Superior Feminine Baddassery, do you have a riddle for me?” Charlie answers the phone, and Sam smiles. Dean and Charlie are best friends, practically joined at the hip since they first met. Sam isn’t sure why, but the two of them just get each other. It probably helps that they’re both into all of that nerdy stuff. Dean always calls Sam a nerd, but he’s only a nerd in the academic sense. Dean and Charlie are pop culture nerds.

“I found out that Gadreel has figured out a way to access the internet from prison,” Sam starts. “He's able to get around the program on the library computer that is supposed to block inmates from using the internet. He even has an email address.”

“Wow,” Charlie says. “Consider me impressed.”

“He's heading to the library right now,” Sam says as he walks down the hallway. A few inmates jeer at him as he passes by their cells, but he ignores them. “Is there a way to monitor what he browses? He might try to contact our unsub.”

Charlie thinks for a second. “I could send him a virus that will allow me access, but he’d have to open the email for it to work.”

“Sounds good!” Sam says excitedly.

“What should I put in the subject line to make sure he opens it?” She asks.

Sam thinks for a little bit. It would have to be something Gadreel wouldn’t be able to resist. “He’s impotent,” he says. “It should be something that will make him feel in control.”

Charlie chuckles, “Got it! How about this: barely legal teen hot for sexy inmate xxx?”

“That’s perfect, Charlie,” Sam says and then grimaces, “And really gross.”

He stays on the line while they wait for Gadreel to open up the email. When he does, Charlie says “Yahtzee!” Sam smiles because she got that saying from Dean. “Wow, you were right about this guy. Looks like he spends most of his time searching for porn,” she says. After a few more minutes of monitoring Gadreel’s activity she speaks up again, “Hang on, he’s posting to a forum on a website called Anarchist’s Alphabet. It looks like a website for bomb enthusiasts and pyromaniacs.”

“Charlie, get me the names of everyone who has accessed that message board within the last month,” Sam says. There’s a good chance their unsub will have posted on that site.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

After about thirty minutes of practicing every breathing technique his therapist taught him, Castiel has finally managed to calm himself down. He doesn’t know how he’s going to be able to get through the rest of this case. Most likely he’s going to have to interview Gadreel again, and he doesn’t think he’s strong enough for that.

Castiel knows he could talk to Gabriel, and he’d understand. For some reason that feels like it’d be giving up though. What he really wishes is that he could take back some of the control he’s lost in his life by taking control in the bedroom. Few people know this, but Castiel used to be pretty heavily involved in the BDSM scene in Chicago. That all changed when he got married. He loves his wife, but her sexual appetite has always been pretty vanilla. He knew that going into their marriage, and he’d never want to change her, but he can’t deny that he’s missed being able to act out on his fantasies.

He would give almost anything to be able to Dom a willing, but somewhat bratty submissive right now. An attractive face with green eyes and a smattering of freckles pops into his head, unbidden, and he flinches. Not only is it entirely inappropriate for him to have sexual thoughts about one of the agents in his charge, but it’s especially inappropriate for him to have those thoughts about the agent who most likely hates him. As much as Castiel is physically attracted to Dean, he knows that Dean is the complete opposite of a submissive. He’s also most likely straight because Castiel can’t seem to be attracted to any men who _aren’t_ straight.

_And why is he even thinking about Dean when he has a pregnant wife at home?_ Castiel runs a hand through his hair. It hasn’t even been a week, and this job is already fucking him up. Thankfully his cell phone starts buzzing in his pocket providing the perfect distraction from the mess that is his head. “Hey Agent Novak, it’s Sam.”

“Where are you with the website users?” Castiel asks, his voice a bit hoarse.

“One hundred and fifty-six registered users,” Sam sighs. “We were able to get some of their addresses, but so far there haven’t been any located near Miami.”

“What about their occupations?” Castiel asks. They know from the profile that their guy most likely works in a job where he’s able to be alone for long periods of time.

“It’s not a required field so not everyone filled it out,” Sam says.

“He would’ve filled it out,” Castiel says confidently. “A guy like this would take pride in his work.”

Castiel can hear Sam clicking the mouse on the other end of the phone. “There’s a paramedic, an architect, an elementary school teacher,” Sam pauses briefly, “That’s a bit concerning…” Castiel grimaces when he thinks about an elementary school teacher browsing a sketchy website for anarchists. Sam continues, “A website designer, an antiquities dealer, a janitor…”

“An antiquities dealer?” Castiel asks. Gabriel had called him to let him know that he and Jo were heading over to talk to an antiquities dealer the first victim had planned to meet with. Is it possible that could be their guy? If so then the two of them are walking into a trap. They think they’re just interviewing someone tangentially involved with the case. They aren’t prepared to meet a potential suspect.

Castiel quickly hangs up the phone and hits ‘1’ on speed-dial to reach Gabriel. He needs to warn them about this guy before they go meet him.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Gabriel sighs while he tries to feign interest in what Guy Jackson’s wife is ranting to him about. Before they'd stepped into the house, she’d directed Jo to the garage where her husband works. Gabriel thought it was best to keep the wife separate from her husband while Jo tries to talk to him since the woman can’t seem to shut her mouth for more than five seconds at a time. Of course now he’s wishing he’d gone to the garage and left Jo here with the motor-mouth.

His cell buzzes in his pocket, and he pulls it out, holding up a finger to the woman to show he needs to take the call. Inside he’s thanking the heavens for giving him an excuse to get out of this conversation. “Milton,” he answers.

“Gabe, it’s me,” Castiel says in a panic, and Gabriel is immediately on high alert. “Sam got a list of the people who accessed that website Gadreel was posting to and one of the people on the list is Guy Jackson. Isn’t he the antiquities dealer you and Jo were going to meet?”

“Shit,” Gabriel mumbles under his breath while he peers out the living room window to look towards the garage where Jo is knocking on the door. Before she’s even lowered her hand to finish knocking, a car slams through the closed garage door and takes off on a mad dash down the driveway. Jo is clipped by the garage door as it's forced out of the way by the moving vehicle, and she falls down, holding her arm in pain.

Gabriel runs out of the house with Mrs. Jackson spewing over and over again that Guy hasn’t ever done anything like this before and that he’s a good man. Gabriel pays no attention to her. He’s too late to attempt to stop Guy Jackson by force because his car is already speeding down the street. Instead he runs over to Jo to check her out. She insists that she’s fine, but her left arm is bleeding so he calls an ambulance anyways.

While the paramedics are checking Jo out and the cops are questioning Mrs. Jackson, Gabriel calls Jessica to have her put out a city-wide search for the car. He’s glad there’s a new unit liaison to help him out with the boring part of his job. After he gets off of the phone with her, he walks back over to Jo. Her arm is bandaged up now, but other than a few scrapes, she’s fine. She’s lucky she wasn’t standing in front of the garage door when the car plowed through it or her injuries would be much worse.

“How are you feeling?” Gabe asks.

“Annoyed,” she groans, rubbing her bandaged arm.

Gabriel heard from the paramedics that she’d refused any pain medications they offered her. He isn’t sure if it’s because she feels like she needs to appear tough or because she doesn’t want to have to stop working the case. “Are you sure you don’t want anything for the pain?” He asks. “Those cuts were pretty deep, and I know getting stitches with no anesthetic isn’t a walk through the park.”

“I’m fine,” she grimaces. “I want to work.”

Gabriel sighs, but he assumes that’s the only answer he’s going to get from her. Of course he remembers what it was like, being a new recruit eager to prove himself. After what happened to Anna… He shakes his head to clear it. “Mrs. Jackson told the cops that her husband spent most of his time out in the garage and refused to let her into it.”

“Let’s go check it out,” Jo says enthusiastically. Gabriel knows this excitement she has will eventually die down and be replaced by cynicism, emotional trauma, and unhealthy coping mechanisms. That’s the way it is for everyone who works this job. He just hopes it doesn’t happen to her for quite some time. She’s so young and full of life.

When they step inside, the first thing Gabriel notices is that the space is immaculately clean. The walls are filled with tools that you’d picture being in a garage, all lined up and put away neatly. “We got the organized part right,” Gabriel chuckles.

“What’s this?” Jo asks, pointing to a desk in the corner with a few coins and chemicals on it.

Gabriel steps towards the desk. “It looks like he was scratching off the dates on the coins and changing them to increase their value.”

“That must’ve been what he did to the first victim’s coins,” Jo says. “That’s probably why the insurance company thought they were fake.”

“Check this out,” an officer says from the other side of the garage. Jo and Gabriel walk over to see what he’s pointing at. There are newspaper clippings posted up on the wall. They’re all about Gadreel’s bombings. The man is clearly obsessed with him and sees him as some sort of twisted mentor. “He was working on something.”

Gabriel pulls away a tarp that’s covering whatever is on this table to reveal bomb making supplies. This is definitely their unsub. He speaks directly to the officer, “Make sure you tell your chief to inform all of the officers that this guy is smart, dangerous, and he has nothing to lose.” The cop nods and leaves the garage to call his police chief. Gabriel and Jo finish checking out the rest of the room in silence. They both know that this guy is going to go through great lengths to not be caught.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Dean sits down at his desk in the bullpen and pulls out his lunch. This morning he’d made himself a supreme sandwich as he calls it. It’s supreme since it has three kinds of meat: turkey, ham, and bacon. He also adds one slice of lettuce to keep Sam off of his back about not eating enough vegetables. Sam insists that one piece of lettuce doesn’t count, but it’s green so Dean figures that’s good enough.

Just as he’s about to take his first heavenly bite, Charlie drops a stack of papers down on the desk in front of him with a loud thump. “Oh, come on,” Dean groans.

“I’ve got work for you, Handmaid,” Charlie says, sitting across from him.

“Are you trying to starve me, woman?” He asks, pushing his plate to the side.

“Stop being such a baby,” she retorts before pushing the stack of papers towards him. “Sam sent these over. They’re emails sent from Gadreel’s account. He said you’d know what to do with them.”

Dean looks at the first email. “Since Guy Jackson has fled, we need to look at this from every angle to see if we can predict what his next move might be.”

Charlie gasps, “His signature! If Jackson got bomb-making ideas from Gadreel, maybe he’s also copying Gadreel’s method of staying away from the cops.”

Dean is surprised. “Wow, you’ve been taking notes!” She rolls her eyes at him in mock hurt, but Dean can tell she’s pleased with herself.

“Who needs a college education now?” She scoffs, and Dean chuckles. Then he sighs and looks down at the massive stack of papers between them. They have a few hours’ worth of work here at the least. They better get started.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Castiel and Sam are back at the police station waiting for Gabriel and Jo to meet back up with them. So far nobody has been able to track down Guy Jackson. He’s seemingly in the wind. They know they’ll be able to find him eventually, but they need to find him before he’s able to commit any more crimes.

Gabe and Jo step into the precinct flanked by a couple of officers. Jo’s arm is bandaged, and Sam immediately goes over to check if she’s okay. She insists she’s fine, but Castiel can tell she’s understandably a bit shaken up. This is only her second case out in the field and she’s already been involved in one shooting and now been injured. Even well-seasoned agents would be shaken up by that.

“What do we know about Jackson?” Gabriel asks the police chief.

“He’s a career criminal,” the chief begins. “He spent two years in prison in the nineties for forging checks. Then he went off of our radar and was seemingly an upstanding citizen until now. We checked his antiques store the moment you put in the call to us that he’s the guy, and we found a bunch of faked antiquities. He’s been scamming people for years and getting away with it, but apparently he’s still in a lot of debt which made him more desperate and careless.”

“The first victim must’ve found out that he was being scammed, and in order to shut him up, Jackson blows him up,” Gabriel muses. “We were right to think he’s doing this to cover up a crime.”

Castiel watches as Sam’s face scrunches up in confusion. “So the other three bombs were just to throw us off the trail? Why go through all that effort to kill one old man who collects coins?”

“Because he knew if he was caught, he’d do at least twenty years in prison,” Castiel says, putting his hands down on the desk in front of him. He feels a bit more in control of himself at the moment now that they know this isn’t connected to Gadreel anymore. Well besides the fact that the bomber liked his design and decided to replicate it.

That all changes the second a man steps into the bullpen followed by a police officer yelling at him to stop. The man has his hands up in the air and is asking the cops to help him before he pulls off his jacket to reveal that he has a pipe bomb strapped to his chest. There’s a timer connected to the bomb that is ticking down, and the man has what looks like a bicycle lock fastened around his neck to make it impossible to remove the bomb.

All of the cops in the room immediately lock their guns on the man, but Castiel raises his hand to stop them. This is not their unsub. He looks to be in his early fifties, and he’s clearly scared out of his mind. What most likely happened is that Guy Johnson placed this bomb on him to try and distract them or use this man as a hostage to secure his own freedom.

“P-please,” the man gasps. “A man put this on me and told me he’d kill me if I tried to take it off. He said you’d know who he is.”

“What does he want?” Castiel asks.

“A passport and a way to leave the country,” the man says. “He’s watching.” He nods over towards the window. That means Guy Jackson must be nearby somewhere. “Once he gets what he wants, he’ll tell you how to diffuse the bomb.” The police chief orders his swat team to take up positions around the rooftop to try and locate the unsub. Since he’s close enough to be watching the police station, the snipers may be able to spot him from their position on the rooftop. “Please get this off of me.”

Castiel moves forward slowly, “We aren’t going to leave you, sir.”

“Get this off.”

Castiel takes another step towards him. “We can’t take it off until we know how it’s been put together.” The police chief calls one of his officers over to take pictures of the bomb. After that’s done the officers work on getting the man into a make-shift room that should theoretically be able to withstand the force of the blast should the bomb go off. Hopefully they’ll be able to shut the bomb down before that happens, but just in case they can’t, they need to make sure everyone else in the building is safe.

They send the pictures of the bomb over to Dean back at Quantico since he’s the one with the most training in this area. When Dean has had the chance to look at it, he shoots a message to Castiel asking him to accept a video chat. Castiel is surprised that the older Winchester has chosen him to speak with instead of his brother or Gabriel, but he answers the call and adjusts his laptop screen settings so his webcam can show him as well.

“Hey Novak,” Dean says by way of greeting. Castiel doesn’t know why, but he’d been hoping to hear Dean call him by that nickname ‘Cas’ again. “This is a _very_ complicated device, which means that if you mess with any part of it, you risk it going off.”

Castiel looks back out towards the main room where everyone is scrambling around the man with the bomb. He’d gone into a smaller conference room to call Dean. “So we can’t just cut the whole thing off of him and then work on diffusing it?”

“Look at the colored wires that are tangled around each other and loop around his collar,” Dean says, and Castiel looks down at the pictures the officer had taken of the device. “Cutting the wrong one could cause the bomb to explode.”

“Can you figure out which wire is the correct one?” Castiel asks, and his voice comes out a bit squeaky. His nerves are starting to spike a bit. Even though the bomb is safely contained for now, he’s terrified of the possibility of it going off. He doesn’t want to have to see someone explode in front of him ever again.

“I could have you guys take x-rays of it to try and get a peek inside, but we don’t have that kind of time,” Dean explains. “There’s only a little over two hours left on the counter.” Castiel’s vision becomes fuzzy, and he feels like he can’t breathe. He’s not sure how much time passes, but eventually he calms down enough to hear Dean saying his name in a worried tone.

“I’m okay.” Castiel sucks in a deep breath and looks back at the screen. Dean is staring at him with a concerned expression on his face, and Castiel feels himself blush in embarrassment. The last person that he wanted to see him have an attack like this was Dean. The younger agent already judges him enough. It’s probably going to get worse from here. He awkwardly ends the call before Dean can say anything else and walks back into the main area of the precinct where everyone else is talking.

Gabriel comes up to him immediately. “The snipers spotted Jackson in an abandoned apartment building across the street,” he says. “He’s in an empty office building across the street.”

“We should surprise him,” Castiel says. “If he feels cornered he’s likely to give himself up.”

“Why do you think he’d give himself up?” Jo asks.

“Bombers are usually cowards,” Gabriel explains. “He’s not going to want to fight his way out.” He turns to the young agent. “Jo, do you want to come with me? We’ll go through the back of the building.”

Castiel isn’t sure how he feels about Gabe taking Jo into the field yet again when she’s just been injured, but she agrees excitedly, and the two of them head off with the S.W.A.T. team before he has a chance to say anything to his brother.

“Remember, we need to take him alive because Jackson is the only one who knows how to diffuse the bomb.” Castiel hears Gabriel say as they leave the building. He takes another deep breath. His brother is going to be fine. The two of them have both been working in this field for the same amount of time and for the same reason.

A few minutes later Gabriel speaks to him over his earpiece. Every agent has one to help them communicate hands-free in situations like this. “We’re heading in.”

“Be careful,” Castiel says. “We know he’s got a gun at the very least.” The man with the bomb on him said Jackson had held him at gunpoint to put the bomb on him. Sam and Jessica, the new liaison, walk over towards him, and Castiel can see his own worries echoed on their faces. Since Castiel is the Assistant Unit Chief, he needs to show strength right now for the rest of his team, in general and especially when Gabriel isn’t here. He gives the two of them a small smile that he hopes is comforting even though his insides are roiling with worry.

“We’re approaching the door now,” Gabe says quietly over the connection.

“Copied,” Castiel says back.

It’s quiet for a second before Jessica speaks up, “So bombers are cowards?”

“Every single one of them,” Castiel replies. He goes quiet when he can hear Gabriel shouting orders at the unsub through the connection. Gabe and Jo must’ve burst into the office and are now trying to get him to surrender himself. He hears Guy Jackson shout that he can’t put his hands up because he’s holding the remote to detonate the bomb.

“I told you what I want,” Castiel can hear the tinny voice of the bomber say. “A passport and a way out of the country.”

Gabriel’s voice comes through much clearer since the earpiece is closer to his mouth. “You’re on the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted list. You know there’s no way we’re letting you go.” Gabriel pauses a second to let that sink in. “You can still come out of here alive though, Jackson. You have until I count to three to come forward and surrender yourself: one…”

“You really going to let a hostage die?” The bomber yells.

“You want to find out? Don’t turn yourself in,” Gabe yells back. “Two.” Jessica flinches next to him, but Castiel tells her that Gabriel is just trying to scare him into turning himself in.

“Okay, okay,” Jackson says frantically. “I’m sliding you my gun. Don’t shoot, I’m coming out.”

Castiel’s cellphone starts buzzing. This is not the best time, but he looks at the caller I.D. and sees that it’s Dean. “Novak,” he answers. He’s keeping one ear open to hear what’s happening on Gabriel’s end and one on what Dean is starting to tell him.

“I found one of Gadreel’s emails that he sent to Jackson two days ago,” he says without a preamble. “Listen to this: My only regret is giving myself up just to be stuck in prison the rest of my life. Don’t make my mistake. If they catch you, take down as many of them as you can. Go down like a man.”

Castiel takes a second to process that while he hears Gabe instruct the unsub, “Walk slowly towards me with your hands up.”

Suddenly it all clicks. Jackson has absolutely no intention of coming out of that room. He’s not a bomber, he’s a forger. Castiel clicks on his earpiece and yells at Gabriel, “Get out of there NOW!”

He can hear Gabriel yelling at the others to fall back and then a few seconds later there’s the sound of a bomb exploding. Castiel, Sam, and Jessica all hold their breath while they wait for any sounds from the other end of the line. Castiel’s heart is in his throat. He can’t lose his brother. He’s barely holding on as it is.

After a few moments of tense silence, Gabriel’s voice comes across the earpiece, and all three of them breathe a sigh of relief. “We’re fine,” Gabe pants. “We all made it out except for Jackson. Is the hostage alright?”

“He’s fine,” Castiel responds, equally out of breath even though he wasn’t just running for his life. “For now anyways.”

“What are we going to do?” Sam asks. The bomber was the only person who knew how to diffuse the bomb and free the hostage, but now he’s dead.

Castiel thinks for a second, and it comes to him. He doesn’t want to do this, but they’re all out of options. He clicks on his earpiece again. “Gabe, I need you to come with me to the prison. We have to make a deal with Gadreel.”

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

It only takes them thirty minutes to get to the prison since Gabriel drives like a maniac. Right now that’s actually a good thing because they have under two hours left to diffuse this bomb and save the hostage. Castiel feels like he might puke when they bring Gadreel out to the same interrogation room he’d talked to him in earlier. This time is slightly better though since Gabe is in the room with him.

“Alright, Gadreel, we’re prepared to make you a deal,” Gabriel starts. The three of them are sitting around the table in the interrogation room, and they’re joined by Gadreel’s lawyer. “We’re willing to transfer you to a medium security prison. You’re in maximum security right now.”

“Not good enough,” Gadreel interrupts him. “I want to be moved to a mental facility.”

Gabriel rolls his eyes. “You’re asking for something we wouldn’t give a minor criminal…”

“I want to be able to talk to people,” Gadreel says, staring directly into Castiel’s eyes. “I want to be able to connect with people who aren’t prisoners.” Castiel nods. They can swing a transfer to a mental facility. Gabriel was just acting like it wasn’t on the table to make Gadreel think he’s getting a sweet offer. “I want one more thing,” Gadreel says still looking at Castiel. “I need one more thing or there’s no deal.”

“What do you want?” Castiel asks.

“I want you to admit that I outsmarted you in Chicago,” Gadreel starts. Castiel can see Gabriel react out of the corner of his eye, but he doesn’t say anything. “I want you to apologize to the families of the six agents that you got killed.”

“That’s enough,” Gabriel stands up. He’s furious. Castiel holds his hand up to stop him. He understands Gabriel’s anger, but he also understands Gadreel. He needs to do this if they’re going to make this deal happen and save this hostage.

“If I do this, you’ll tell us how to diffuse the bomb?” Castiel asks.

“You _have_ to do this if you want my help,” Gadreel smirks.

Castiel paces for a second. “How do I know if you’re telling the truth?”

The lawyer speaks up from her place next to Gadreel. “It’s all written up, Agent Novak. If my client gives you incorrect information or he lies to you, the deal is void and he gets nothing.”

“I’ll do it,” Castiel says firmly. Gabriel puts his hand on Castiel’s shoulder, but he shrugs him off instinctively. His brother means well, but he can handle this.

Gadreel leans back in his seat, still smirking. “Say it.”

“There was a hostage situation in Chicago six months ago. You told me that you'd give yourself up, and I believed you. You came out willingly, and I sent in six agents to retrieve the hostage. That’s when you pressed the button to set off the bomb that killed everyone inside that building. It was my mistake. I was outsmarted by you, Gadreel.” He looks over at the prisoner who is staring at him smugly. “I apologize to the families of the victims who died in that blast, and I am deeply sorry for what happened.”

Castiel closes his eyes as the guilt washes over him. Gabriel might not think it’s his fault, and the FBI might not think it’s his fault, but he knows the truth. It was his fault. It was his call. He was in charge of making the decision, and he chose wrong. He won’t make that mistake again.

“We only have thirty minutes left until the bomb goes off,” Gabriel reminds them quietly to break the complete silence that’s come over the room. “We have to leave now to get back to the station in time.” Gadreel nods that he’s satisfied with Castiel’s statement, and the three of them drive back to the police station in record time.

They bring Gadreel over to where the Miami bomb technician is sitting inside of the blast proof walls they’d built up around the hostage in case anything bad was to happen. The bomb tech says, “I’ve narrowed it down to the two wires that are actually connected to the bomb. It’s either the green wire or the yellow wire. We only have one shot at this.”

The timer on the device is counting down the final minute. All non-essential people have been evacuated from this floor. This bomb isn’t big, but they don’t want there to be any extra casualties in case it does go off.

“Alright, Gadreel,” Castiel says calmly. “Which wire do we cut? Yellow or green?”

Gadreel looks at the device for a few seconds and then answers confidently, “Green.”

“If you’re lying to me the deal is void, and you get nothing. Are you sure that’s the answer you want to give me?” Castiel asks him.

“I’m positive,” Gadreel says just as confidently. “It’s green.”

“Cut the green wire?” Castiel reiterates. The timer only has twenty seconds left on it. He can feel Gabriel getting antsy next to him.

“I don’t know how else I could say it,” Gadreel says, annoyed.

Castiel turns to look at him, searching his eyes for any hints that he could be deceiving them. Ten seconds left. “Castiel!” Gabriel yells. They need to make a decision now.

“Cut the yellow wire,” Castiel orders. Gabriel, Gadreel, and the bomb tech all turn to look at him incredulously. Five seconds. “Yellow wire, NOW!” The bomb tech cuts the yellow wire. They brace for an explosion, but all that happens is a small click and the bomb shuts off.

Gadreel sighs in disappointment before Gabriel grabs him by the neck and shoves him into the wall. Even though Gabe is a pretty short guy, he’s surprisingly strong. “Get him out of here,” he says to the guards who’d escorted Gadreel here from the prison.

After the guards take him away, the bomb technician begins working on freeing the crying hostage. Gabriel turns to look at him. “How did you know he was lying?”

“He told me when I interrogated him earlier that given the chance to push that button, he had no choice,” Castiel explains. “He said it was an emotional release he couldn’t resist. I just took his word for it.”

Gabriel chuckles, “Nice work, Cassie.” He tries to pat him on the shoulder again, and this time Castiel lets him. “After I go change my pants, we can meet up with the rest of the team and head home.” Gabriel hadn't actually shit his pants, of course, but his brother always likes to make jokes when he can. The fact that he made one now means he's incredibly relieved this went well when it could've gone much worse. While Gabe walks off to go collect Jo, Sam, and Jessica from where they were sent to get away from the bomb, Castiel stands behind for a moment to collect himself.

He still feels guilty for what happened in Chicago. He’s not sure if he’ll ever fully be healed of that guilt, but he does feel light in a way he hasn’t since before the incident. Gadreel may have outsmarted him once, but Castiel got the upper hand this time. He smiles when he thinks about how he gets to go home to his wife right now while Gadreel is going back to a maximum security prison where he’ll be spending the rest of his life. The thought of Gadreel being locked away in that cell while Castiel gets to live freely gives him intense pleasure. One might even call it an emotional release.


	5. The Senator's Sons

Castiel wakes up abruptly from yet another nightmare. He’s had one every night since the bombing case ended. For the most part, he’s been able to enjoy his three day weekend home with Amelia, but he’s barely gotten any sleep because of the constant nightmares. He takes a few deep breaths to slow down his racing heartbeat. Once he’s calmed slightly, he gets out of bed as quietly as he can so he won’t disturb his wife. He’s drenched in cold sweat so he tiptoes over to the bathroom to splash some water on his face and change into another pair of sleep clothes. He groans when he sees that it’s three in the morning. That means he needs to try and get back to sleep even though he doesn’t want to. He has to be back at the BAU at nine. The three day weekend was nice, but it’s over now. They have another case to solve.

He’s about to sneak back into the bedroom when he hears a light knock on the door. “Are you okay, honey?” Amelia asks. Castiel sighs. Amelia has been so patient with him the past couple days. She’s been understanding about his recent set back in his recovery. The nightmares, the aversion to touch, the anxiety… it’s all putting a strain on their relationship, but she’s been so patient and forgiving with him.

He opens the door and takes in the worried expression on her face. “I had another nightmare,” Castiel explains. “I didn’t want to wake you.”

“I told you that you can always wake me when you have a nightmare,” Amelia says. “I don’t mind.”

“It wasn’t that bad of one,” Castiel lies with a tired smile. He can tell that she doesn’t believe him, but she does follow him back to bed.

“I was thinking…” Amelia begins slowly, and he suddenly doesn’t want to know what she was thinking. Whatever it is can’t be good if she’s struggling to say it. “I know back in Illinois we had talked about your… sexual needs.” She blushes.

“You can say BDSM,” Castiel chuckles. “It’s not a bad word.”

“I know, it’s just a little awkward,” she giggles. “Anyways, I was thinking—“

“Ames, we’ve talked about this,” Castiel sighs. “I know you’re not into that, and that’s okay.”

“No, listen to me.” She tentatively reaches for his hand. Castiel flinches automatically but then grabs onto her hand. Once the contact is initiated, it actually helps to ground him. “While you were working the last case in Miami, I did some research on local clubs.” Castiel squints in confusion, so she continues. “BDSM clubs…”

“What are you saying?”

“There’s a BDSM club nearby that has very good reviews,” she says. “I was thinking that maybe you could try going there… You’ve said before that it helps you cope and feel more in control.”

“Amelia, I don’t have to,” Castiel starts, but he wants to. He really wants to.

“Honestly, Castiel, I don’t mind,” she says. “I care about you more than anything, and I can see how much you’ve been hurting lately. If this will help you, I’m fine with it.”

“But—“

She squeezes his hand gently. “I’m fine with it as long as it’s just a physical outlet and you don’t form any emotional attachments to people.”

Castiel can’t believe this wonderful, supportive woman is his wife. How did he get so lucky? “What did I do in my past life to deserve you?” He asks, leaning over to kiss her forehead.

“I don’t know, but you must’ve been an angel or something,” she replies with a smirk. The two of them get back into bed, and Castiel pulls her into his arms. He’s discovered that he’s able to handle physical touch when he’s the initiator or the one in control of it. He needs human contact, but he’s just been having a hard time with it recently.

He is looking forward to checking out this club next weekend. He was a regular member at some of the clubs back in Illinois, but it’s been ages since he's actually been able to scene with anyone. The anticipation gives him something to look forward to. He knows this next week will most likely be hard, but he can get through it knowing that he has something fun planned at the end of it.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

It’s May 2nd which means it’s Sammy’s twenty-fifth birthday. Dean tries to quietly sneak up behind his brother from where he’s sitting facing away from him at his desk. Over their three day weekend, he’d bought a birthday cake and put it in the BAU kitchen so he’d be able to surprise Sam with it when they came back to work. It’s hard to keep anything a secret from him when they live in the same tiny apartment.

Jo is sitting across from Sam at her desk so she sees him walk over. Dean also notices the new girl, Jessica, approach with Bobby, Castiel and Gabriel right behind her. He leans over his brother to put the cake on Sam’s desk.

“Happy birthday!!” Everyone yells at the same time, and Sam jumps about a foot in the air. Dean starts laughing hysterically at how easily startled his brother is.

“Hey, be nice,” Bobby smacks Dean on the back of the head while he lights the candles on Sam’s cake for him to blow out. Sam prepares to make a wish and try to blow out the candles, but Dean has another little trick up his sleeve. He put trick candles on the cake, so no matter how hard Sam blows, he’s not going to be able to put them out. Sam starts struggling, and Jo immediately figures out what’s happening and starts laughing hysterically. Jessica is also giggling, but Dean notices the way she’s looking at Sam. Wow, his geeky brother might have a shot with her after all!

“Why isn’t this working?” Sam asks, starting to get frustrated.

“They’re trick candles,” Bobby explains and helps him put them out. “Your brother is an idjit.” Sam turns around to glare at Dean who is now bent over laughing so hard that tears are rolling down his face.

Bobby and Sam start cutting slices of cake to pass around, and Dean tries to compose himself. Seemingly out of nowhere Castiel says quietly, “It’s incredible that he knows as much as he knows when he’s only twenty-five.” Once again he’s standing way too close, and Dean can’t help but shiver a bit at the sound of Castiel’s low voice that close to his ear.

He coughs quietly to clear his throat before he responds. “Imagine what he’ll know when he’s fifty.” He can’t help the pride that comes through in his voice. He feels Castiel turn to look at him, but he doesn’t return the look. He’s trying not to spend too much time staring into those bright blue eyes, because they’re giving Dean all sorts of weird feelings and thoughts that he doesn’t know how to deal with.

It’s all Charlie’s fault. After she’d called Novak dreamy the other day, Dean hasn’t been able to help some of the inappropriate thoughts he’s had about his new boss. He partially blames Charlie for planting that specific fantasy in his head and also Lisa for canceling their hook-up this weekend. He hasn’t gotten laid in way too long, and his libido is starting to get the best of him.

He’s not even sure if he’s attracted to guys in the first place! Of course at the moment, not-so-mini Dean doesn’t seem to care about that, and Castiel is pretty hot. Objectively hot. Dean isn’t thinking that because he’s suddenly turned gay, it’s just a fact. The man is sexy in a reserved sort of way. He doesn’t look like he’s that strong, but Dean imagines under that suit and ridiculous trench coat, he’s hiding away a nicely toned bod. 

And he’s stopping that train of thought before he gets a stiffy in the middle of the bullpen.

“Alright everyone, conference room,” Bobby orders. Sam picks up the pile of files on his desk and starts following Bobby and the others down the hallway. Dean quickly jogs to catch up to him and puts his arm around his brother’s shoulders. As they’re walking together down the hallway to the conference room, they pass by a few female agents from other branches of the FBI. All of them give Dean appraising looks and a couple even give him obvious winks.

“That’s so not fair,” Sam grumbles. “You don’t even have to try!”

“What can I say, Sammy?” Dean chuckles. “Chicks dig me.” It does worry him that he’s not even interested in checking out any of these other agents in return. Suddenly it seems like all he can think about is blue eyes and dark, messy hair, and that’s a problem.

“You don’t do anything, and women throw themselves at you,” Sam says wondrously. He sounds like he’s a mix between jealous and disgusted.

“I have two words for you,” Dean says. “Off-limits.”

“There’s no rule in our Code of Conduct handbook saying that agents can’t date,” Sam says, confused.

Dean’s first thought is that there are rules against agents dating someone of a higher rank in the same unit, but that’s not an issue anyways because he doesn’t want to date Novak. He shakes his head. “Well I have a personal rule against dating women who know how to use a gun,” he laughs. Jo catches the very last part of that statement and raises her eyebrows at him questioningly. He just shakes his head again and motions for her and Sam to enter the conference room ahead of him.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Castiel quickly ducks into his office to answer his personal cellphone. The only person who should be calling him would be Amelia, but he’d just seen her no more than an hour ago. It would be weird for her to call him so soon.

“Hello?” He answers the phone with shaking hands.

“This is so stupid,” Amelia mutters from the other end of the line.

“What’s going on?” Castiel asks, worried.

“I’m at the hospital.” His heartbeat immediately starts to quicken. She’s only seven and a half months pregnant. It’s too early for her to go into labor. “I’m not in labor,” she says quickly as if she can sense where his thoughts immediately went. “I fell off the ladder while I was trying to change a lightbulb. I meant to ask you to do it this morning, but I forgot.”

“Are you okay?” He asks breathlessly. “What about Jack?”

“We’re both fine,” she reassures him. “But I did break my ankle in the fall. The doctors want to hold me here for forty-eight hours so they can monitor my condition and Jack’s. Then they want me on strict bed-rest until I deliver.” He can tell by her tone that she’s not happy about that last part.

“I’m just relieved you’re okay,” he says. Gabriel knocks gently on his office door before opening it slowly. “Try to get some rest, honey. I’ll call you in a bit.”

“I love you,” Amelia says before hanging up.

“What’s up?” Gabe asks him.

Castiel puts his personal cellphone back in his pocket. “Amelia is in the hospital. Don’t worry, she and Jack are fine,” he reassures Gabriel quickly because he could see his brother was about to freak out. “She was trying to change a lightbulb and fell off the ladder. She broke her ankle, so they’re holding her for two days to monitor her.”

“Do you need to stay here?” Gabriel asks. “We can do this one without you if you want to be with her.”

Castiel thinks for a minute. “No, I think it’d be better if I was working. What do we have?”

“Follow me,” Gabriel says seriously. That probably means this is a bad one. Not like they ever work on any good cases, but they are varying degrees of bad.

When they get to the conference room, everyone else is already seated. He makes eye contact with Dean, but the other agent immediately looks away, blushing slightly. He wonders what that could be about. He knows he and Dean haven’t exactly gotten along so far, but Castiel had been hoping the older Winchester was at least starting to warm to him. Maybe he isn’t.

Bobby pulls up a letter on the projector screen. It’s a ransom note. “I’m sure you all know about Senator Larry Pike,” Bobby starts. “His son Matt was kidnapped late last night.”

He zooms in on the note so they can see it. Sam squints at the screen and reads it out loud. “You will follow these instructions carefully to ensure the safety of your son. You will wait for a call and answer it at eight pm. You will write down the instructions and follow them exactly.”

“That gives us only eleven hours to get to the Pikes' house, work on victimology, and prepare Senator Pike for the ransom drop,” Gabriel says. They all exchange worried looks. That’s a pretty thin timeline to work with. "Thankfully even though the Senator is from Georgia, since Congress is in session he's staying at his house in Washington. We can drive there pretty quickly." 

“How do we know the letter is authentic?” Dean asks, twirling the tennis ball he always seems to carry with him on the conference table like a spinning top.

Bobby zooms in a bit more on the page. “The crime lab matched the handwriting to Matt’s handwriting. It must’ve been dictated to him.”

“He never says ‘I’,” Dean muses. “He only says ‘you.’ He’s distancing himself from the kidnapping, refusing to take responsibility for it.”

“There’s something else missing too,” Gabriel says. “He doesn’t say anything about not going to the police.”

“Ransom notes almost always warn against getting the police involved,” Jo says from her seat next to Dean. Castiel smiles encouragingly at her.

“Does that mean he’s expecting us to get involved anyways?” Dean asks, picking up the tennis ball to stop it from spinning.

“If he’s expecting us, let’s not disappoint him,” Gabriel says, “Grab your go-bags. I want us in the SUV in fifteen minutes.”

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Dean chuckles as everyone else in the SUV grabs onto the nearest surface to hold on for dear life. The SUV comes back down onto all four wheels after Gabriel finishes racing around a turn. The man drives like a maniac, and that’s saying something coming from Dean, but he’ll take it any day over flying. It's nice to be able to head out for a case without having to talk himself through his unrealistic phobia. 

“How familiar are you guys with Larry Pike?” Gabriel asks, looking in the rear-view mirror at the agents. Castiel is in the passenger seat. Sam is in the middle row next to Dean, and Jo is in the way-back with Jessica. They look like they’re about to head off on a wacky family vacation. Jessica doesn't really need to be here since they don't have to worry about controlling the media in this case, but Gabriel wants her to shadow them so she can see how things are done. 

“Larry Pike is a Senator from Georgia,” Sam speaks up. “He’s a widower with two sons. He’s been assigned a security detail of federal marshals three times over the last two years due to death threats. He’s a liberal in a very conservative area of the state, so a lot of his constituents don’t agree with his policy choices.”

“Is the protective detail still in place?” Dean asks.

“24/7,” Castiel responds from the front, “But Matt declined protection when he turned eighteen.”

“That’s too bad for his girlfriend,” Dean sighs. When Matt was kidnapped, he’d been with her. Whoever took him put a bullet in his girlfriend’s head. That makes it clear that whoever they’re dealing with specifically targeted Matt Pike, most likely for his connections to his Senator father.

“You said he has two sons, Sam?” Castiel asks. “Are they close?”

“Very,” Sam replies. “They’re identical twins.” He shows Dean a picture of the two boys with their arms wrapped around each other wearing matching basketball uniforms. After Dean looks, Sam turns around to show Castiel, but he’s already facing forward in his seat again. Not for the first time, Dean wonders what’s going on in his new boss’s head. Sam doesn’t seem to think much of it though. He just shrugs and puts the picture back in the file with the rest of the information they’ve amassed so far.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

They pull up to the Pike’s mansion about thirty minutes later. Castiel didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but this wasn’t it. He’s never heard of Larry Pike before, but the man is frazzled and nervous. That’s not out of place for a parent of a missing child, but he’s wearing a robe and slippers. Castiel has this image of senators and politicians in his head where they always wear suits all the time.

He follows Gabriel inside. The mansion is buzzing with activity. There are police officers, secret service men, and FBI agents all moving around and blabbering orders to each other. He’s only been here a minute, and he can already feel a headache coming on. Larry Pike explains to Gabriel how they give background checks to everyone who works with him, and how everyone has been thoroughly vetted. There are no red flags or suspects of who may have taken Matt. Castiel steps into the living room and sees a framed picture of the family on top of the fireplace. A loving father and twin teenage boys, just as Sam had said. He gasps when he steps closer.

Castiel knows in that moment that God must exist and that wherever He is, He must be making it His divine duty to torture Castiel as much as possible. That’s the only explanation for why the boy they’re looking for looks exactly like a younger version of Samandriel. Right down to his hairstyle and small smile. Castiel closes his eyes and clenches his fists, trying to stay in the present. This isn’t Samandriel. Samandriel is dead. This is Matt and Alfie Pike, eighteen year old twins. Both of them are in their first year of college. Matt has been kidnapped. Matt’s girlfriend was killed. The BAU team has until eight pm to prepare for the phone call.

Repeating the facts of the case to himself seems to help calm him slightly, though he does flinch when he feels a hesitant hand on his shoulder. He opens his eyes and sees that it’s Dean. The other agent is standing next to him with a concerned look on his face. Castiel instinctively shrugs the hand off of him, and Dean looks hurt for a second before he schools his expression.

“They’re both so young, right?” Dean says quietly.

Castiel wasn’t upset about their age, but he grabs onto the excuse like a lifeline. It’s easier than explaining that he can’t seem to get away from that horrible incident in Chicago. “Yeah,” he says simply.

Dean looks like he’s about to pat him on the shoulder again, but must think better of it. “Come on,” he says. “Let’s go meet up with Alfie. One of the secret service guys said he’s at the scene where Matt was taken.”

It only takes them about ten minutes to drive to the crime scene. Matt and his girlfriend had been on their way home from a party when they’d been attacked by the unsub. He’d tricked them by pretending he was having car trouble. Then when they’d gotten out of their car to help, he’d attacked them, killing Matt’s girlfriend and kidnapping Matt.

When Dean pulls up to the scene, Castiel notices that there are multiple agency vehicles here. It looks like they’re all standing around watching as a boy who he’s guessing is Alfie lies down in the center of the road. The two of them get out of the SUV and walk over towards a secret service agent.

“What’s he doing?” Dean asks the man.

“Lying in the road,” the agent responds simply. Castiel would roll his eyes if he wasn’t so shocked by the sight in front of him. In person, this teenager looks even more like Samandriel than he had in the picture.

“I can see that,” Dean says sarcastically. “Why is he lying in the road?”

“He said he’s trying to get a feel for what happened to his brother,” another agent responds. Dean nods as if that makes sense, but Castiel doesn’t get it. It reminds him of what Dean had been doing on their first case when he said he was ‘role-playing’, whatever that means.

“Alfie Pike?” Castiel says loudly to try and break him out of whatever he’s doing.

“Shh,” Alfie waves at him to shut up, but doesn’t open his eyes or get up. Dean raises his eyebrows at Castiel smugly. He’s such a brat. Castiel would like nothing more than to wipe that smirk off of the other agent’s face and replace it with some needy begging, but he can’t. Dean isn’t a submissive, and even if he was, Castiel can’t sleep with his charge. It’s inappropriate. “I’m not crazy,” Alfie says timidly. “Just give me a second.”

Castiel sighs, and Dean continues to smirk. Definitely a brat.

Alfie takes a deep breath and then stands up, wiping the dust from the road off of his pants. He steps over towards them and says, “This was where he fell. Matt is a fighter. He wouldn’t have gone quietly even if there had been a gun pointed at him. The man had to have dragged him off.”

Castiel looks down at the file in his hands. He’s surprised because Alfie’s prediction lines up perfectly with the evidence that had been collected from the crime scene. “He’s right,” he says incredulously. Dean’s smirk grows wider. “So you think your brother is still alive?” Castiel asks.

“I know he is,” Alfie says firmly.

“You know the way twins just _know_?” Castiel asks.

Alfie’s eyes narrow a little bit. “I’m not psychic or something, but whenever he’s in pain or upset, I can tell. Even hundreds of miles away at college. It’s the same way for him.”

Castiel nods. “You’re studying pre-med right?”

Alfie’s eyes narrow a bit further. “If you’re asking why a science major would believe in something non-scientific, I don’t know how to explain it. I just do.”

“Okay, okay,” Dean raises his hands up in a calming gesture, probably to try and get them back on track. He shoots a look towards Castiel, but he can’t decipher what it means. Castiel does take a calming breath though. Maybe the resemblance between the twins and Samandriel is clouding his judgement. He needs to put things in perspective and calm himself down. They have work to do.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Sam, Jo, and Jessica are standing in the Pikes' spacious living room with Gabriel and Larry Pike. Sam can tell Jo had wanted to complain when Gabe sent Castiel and Dean into the field without her, but she held her tongue. She probably knows that complaining about it won’t change Gabriel’s mind. That and it would look pretty unprofessional to the multitude of different agents milling around the house.

“The house is clear,” one of the officers informs them. The first thing they did when they got here was check to make sure the house wasn’t bugged with any listening devices. The unsub could’ve potentially used that to try and hear what they’re saying about him in the house.

“Alright, bring the stuff in,” Gabriel orders one of the FBI agents standing around. Now they can bring in all of their equipment and set up everything they’ll need for the ransom drop here at the house. It’ll be easier to do everything here than it would be to do it down at the local police station.

Larry Pike runs his hands over his face in frustration, and when he moves his hands away it’s clear he’s close to tears. “I just want to get him back,” he whispers and sniffles a bit.

Gabriel looks towards him, “Dr. Winchester, what are the statistics on kidnapping recoveries?”

Sam clears his throat. “Statistics show that if you follow the instructions in the ransom, your son won’t be harmed.” Larry nods and takes a deep breath to calm himself down.

“How is your other son holding up?” Gabriel asks.

Larry goes to pick up the picture of the three of them on the fireplace. “He flew home immediately when he heard about Matt,” Larry says. “He’s going to school in Pennsylvania. They’re not fully identical, you know.” Gabriel and Jo exchange a look, but Sam keeps listening to him even though it seems like he’s starting to ramble. “They’re mirror twins.”

Sam nods, “Situs transversus.” Gabriel shoots him a look. It’s a look he gets a lot, usually whenever he says or does something to remind everyone what a freak he is. “Some of one twin’s organs are opposite the way they should be right?”

“Yes,” Larry says. “Matt’s lungs and heart are inverted. The doctors assured us it isn’t a problem.”

Thankfully Jo is there to get them back on target. “They’ve both had self-defense training, correct?”

“Yes, I made sure of it. As they started getting older, they got frustrated being followed everywhere by a security detail,” Larry explains. “I told them they could drop the body guards if they took self-defense training lessons.” Jo nods. “Do you think whoever took Matt did it because they don’t agree with my politics? What’s usually the reasoning?”

“In our experience, Mr. Pike, every case is different,” Gabriel says. He nods at them signaling that they should leave the room. He whispers to Jo and Jessica, “Stay here with him and answer any questions he has. Keep him calm.” Jo looks like she’s about to complain, but he just raises his eyebrow at her in a challenge. She sighs and sits down at the table across from where Larry is sitting.

“What do you need me to do?” Sam asks.

“I need you to use that gigantic brain of yours and think outside the box,” Gabriel says.

“I’m not good at that,” Sam sighs. “Dean says that’s why I can’t ever beat Bobby at poker.”

“Well, he’s probably right,” Gabe chuckles.

“What is the box in this situation?” Sam asks.

“When you think of the standard profile for a kidnapper, if everything goes in the box, what’s left over?”

“What you don’t know,” Sam replies. “The unknown.”

“I want you to get creative,” Gabriel says. “Even if statistically it’s so unlikely that it usually wouldn’t be worth pursuing. Sometimes you have to think of things nobody else thought of.” Sam hates this task. Out of their entire team, he thinks he’s the least suited to work like this. It’s not the way his brain is used to thinking about things. Gabriel must be able to sense his hesitation because he smiles and ruffles his hair the same way Dean does. “I’m counting on you, kid.”

Gabriel leaves to go talk to some of the other agents, and Sam sits down on the Pikes’ living room couch. Time to think outside the box. He sighs. Well, Sam has yet to come across a puzzle he can’t solve. He just needs to stop moping and get to work.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Castiel stands to the side of the road next to Alfie while Dean paces around thinking. They watch him run his hand along the fence on the side of the road and examine some vines that are clinging to the side of it. Castiel thinks it’s all a bit silly, but this method seems to work for Dean. Who is he to judge?

“What’s he doing?” Alfie asks.

“I think he’s role-playing,” Castiel says, using the term Dean had given him for this strange behavior on their first case together. “He’s trying to get inside the mind of the kidnapper. He’s trying to piece together his behavior to get a sense of what he’s like.”

“And you said what I was doing wasn’t scientific,” Alfie says, rolling his eyes. Castiel chooses to ignore him. They can hear Dean sigh from where he’s standing about ten feet away. His eyes are closed, and he starts mumbling to himself.

“He was with his girlfriend constantly,” Dean whispers. “So I know I have to find a way to get rid of her first.” He takes a few more steps into the road and bends over to look at the tire skid-marks. “She was collateral damage.” He pauses. “Or was she? He shot her in the face which is pretty personal.” Dean gasps and turns around to face them.

Castiel steps far enough away from Alfie so he won’t hear him ask, “What is it, Dean?”

“I think our unsub took out the girlfriend as if he was getting rid of a threat. Take her out so he can have Alfie to himself.”

This changes things. Most kidnappings with a ransom are for the money. There could’ve been a secondary motive here since Larry Pike has a lot of enemies because of his political stance, but now it doesn’t seem like that’s the case. This is personal. Whoever took Matt wants him specifically and killed his girlfriend in an act of jealous rage. They have to get back to the house to tell the others what they’ve found out.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

The drive back to the house with Castiel and Alfie is a pretty awkward affair. Dean is driving and apparently he is also the only one trying to alleviate the awkward silence in the car. Novak is a weird guy by any measure, but he is surprised by how much the other agent has closed off.

Dean knows how hard this job can be especially at the very beginning. That’s not even counting the traumatic incident Novak had been involved with six months ago and the fact that he’d had to re-live that incident all over again on their last case with Gadreel. Dean is impressed with how he’d handled that situation. Sam told him all about it when they’d gotten back home. He knows that if their roles had been switched, Dean probably would’ve lost his badge and been arrested for assault. He can’t imagine what it must’ve been like for Novak to have to admit defeat in front of Gadreel and take responsibility for killing all of those agents, even though every agent can agree it wasn’t his fault.

They pull up to the Pikes’ house and meet up with the rest of the team in the living room. It looks like they’ve been busy working on setting up the phone where they can take the ransom call in a few minutes. Sam has headphones on. It looks like he’s testing out the sound while Gabriel talks Larry Pike through how it works.

“This button will answer the call when it comes in,” Gabe explains. “This button will mute our side of the conversation, but we’ll still be able to hear whatever he says. We’ll be running a trace through the field office to try and figure out his location if he stays on the line long enough.”

Alfie walks over to give his father a hug, and Dean sees Novak sigh exasperatedly. _What the hell is his problem?_ Dean tries to grab him by the arm to take him to the next room where they can talk, but Castiel flinches away. When he turns around, Dean points into the next room signaling that he wants to talk.

“What is it?” Castiel whispers angrily through his teeth.

“What is going on? You’ve been on edge ever since we met up with Alfie and his body guards.” Dean can tell that Castiel doesn’t want to respond, but Dean needs him to. They need to be able to work with this family if they’re going to have any hope of finding Matt. Then it hits him. “Is this seriously about what happened at the crime scene?” Dean asks, insulted. “Do you think Alfie is crazy because he says he can feel that his brother is still alive?”

Castiel’s eyes narrow. “I never said he was crazy.” Dean wants to roll his eyes because he may not have said it out loud, but he’s definitely been thinking it.

Before Dean has a chance to say that, Sam walks in. He must’ve heard what they were talking about because he says, “Actually there might be a scientific basis for it.”

Dean sighs. “Don’t ask,” he says, looking at Castiel. They don’t need to turn this into one of Sam’s hour long lectures.

Sam continues anyways. “Identical twins share the same DNA down to the last strand. We’re still studying the effects this has, but there has been sporadic evidence of shared physiological pain between sets of identical twins.”

“You believe that?” Castiel asks skeptically.

“No, I’m just saying it’s possible,” Sam replies with a smile.

Thankfully Gabriel walks into the room before Sam has a chance to continue. “One minute, guys. Everyone get ready.” They walk back to the living room where the phone is set up and all take up their spots. Sam sits down at the table and puts his headphones back on. Castiel and Gabriel sit down on either side of Larry Pike while Jo stands over next to Alfie to help keep him relaxed. Dean walks over to stand behind Sam. From that angle he can see what Sam takes notes on. He can see from across the table that Larry Pike is shaking like a leaf. He shoots a pointed look at Castiel to do something. The other agent leans over towards Senator Pike. “Remember to keep your voice steady, and agree with anything he says. We’ll be here to help you if you need it.”

The clock in the living room chimes signaling that it’s eight o’clock. “He’s late,” Larry says in a panic.

“Try to stay calm,” Gabriel pats him on the shoulder. “This is a strategy. He wants you to be on edge.”

Larry Pike nods and takes a deep breath. A few seconds later, the phone rings. Castiel speaks up again. “Remember to repeat any important information he gives you to show him that you understand. Try to keep him talking as long as possible to get him to reveal something about himself or about Matt.” Larry nods again, and Castiel hits the button to answer the call.

“This is Larry Pike,” Larry says, his voice shaking a bit. Dean can tell he’s trying to keep himself together though.

“Hello, Mr. Pike,” a weird voice answers. It sounds like the unsub is using some sort of software to distort his voice. That’s odd.

“Are you the man who has my son, Matt?” Larry asks. Good, he’s doing what they’d prepped him to do by using Matt’s name to try and humanize him.

There’s a momentary pause on the other end of the line. “I have your son.”

“Can I ask—“

“You may ask me nothing,” the voice responds, angrier now. “I tell you what to do, and you do it.”

“Okay,” Larry Pike responds timidly.

“But I won’t give my instructions to you,” the voice says. “I want to speak to Alfie.”

Castiel quickly hits the mute button. “What’s he doing?” Larry asks.

“What most of these guys try to do,” Dean says. “He’s trying to establish dominance and take control of the call.”

“We can’t put him on,” Castiel says, crossing his arms.

“Wait, why not?” Alfie says. “Let me help.” Castiel just shakes his head.

“Alfie doesn’t have the authority that Senator Pike holds,” Dean says, confused. “He shouldn’t want to talk to him, he should want to talk to Larry.”

Jo speaks up from next to Alfie. “I think he should speak to him.”

They’ve been muted for too long. The voice on the other end of the line repeats, “I want to speak to Alfie… Put him on the phone, now.”

“No,” Castiel says again.

“I think we should let him,” Jo repeats. “He wants to talk to him. If we play along, we could get him to reveal something.”

“No,” Castiel says again, but then he looks up at Dean. “Dean.”

Dean knows what he means. He’s going to have Dean pretend to be Alfie and see if they can trick the unsub. He gets up and walks over to the other side of the table where the phone is. Castiel unmutes it. “Hello?” Dean tries to make his voice a bit higher than it would normally be since Alfie’s voice is pretty high. “This is Alfie.” Silence. “This is Alfie,” he says again.

“I have Matt sitting right here next to me,” the voice says. “I know his voice, therefore I know Alfie’s voice. Get off the line.” He’s definitely getting angrier. That’s not good. “For the last time, I want to speak to Alfie. You have one minute to put him on the line, or I’m going to hang up and you won’t hear from me again.”

Castiel quickly mutes the phone again and signals Alfie to come over. They only have a minute to prep him. Gabriel helps Alfie sit down in the chair in front of the phone and tries to calmly explain what they need Alfie to do. They had multiple hours to prep Larry Pike, and now they only have a few seconds. Plus Alfie is a teenager which means he’s going to be more unpredictable on the call. This has the potential to go very badly.

“This guy is arrogant,” Gabriel says. “You need to show him that he’s in control. Let him lead the conversation. Make sure you use Matt’s name as much as you can. Say things like ‘My brother, Matt.’ Talk about your brother. Let the unsub get to know him through you.” Alfie nods. His face is paler than it was earlier, and he’s pretty pale to begin with. Gabriel continues. “This part is hard, but it’s important. Empathize with him. Tell him you understand that he made a mistake, but he has the chance to fix it.”

“Okay,” Alfie says timidly.

“If you don’t know what to say at any point, just mute the mic and we’ll tell you,” Castiel says.

“Ten seconds,” the voice reminds them.

Alfie unmutes the mic. “This is Alfie,” he says quietly.

“Hello, Alfie. How are you?”

Alfie looks towards Gabriel who nods encouragingly at him. “I would feel a lot better if I knew that Matt was okay.”

Dean takes back his place behind Sam again so he can see what Sam is writing while he listens. Sam’s hand is moving furiously while he writes. _“He knows them somehow.”_ The voice speaks up again. It’s so distorted, but there’s something about it that Dean can’t quite place. It sounds familiar. “It sounds like you are a very caring person, Alfie. Is that correct?”

“Yes,” Alfie answers, confused. Then he must remember what Gabriel told him because he continues, “It sounds like you can relate.”

“Yes,” the voice replies, sounding a bit more excited now. “I care. I care about you.”

Dean looks back down at Sam who is still writing. _“Cares about Alfie romantically maybe?”_ Sam brings up a good point. The way this guy is talking and seems to care more about communicating with Alfie than getting money for a typical ransom is odd. That combined with the fact that he'd killed Matt's girlfriend in a personal way, shooting her directly in the head, makes it seem like there's another motive than just money. 

“I want to know you,” the voice says. “Tell me everything about you. What’s your favorite color?”

Gabriel quickly mutes their side of the conversation. “Don’t answer that. Keep the focus on Matt.”

Alfie unmutes it. “If I tell you can I talk to my brother?”

The voice chuckles. “Maybe.”

Gabriel nods at Alfie that he can answer the question. “I like green.”

“Interesting. I’d expected you to like a less boring color,” the voice sighs. “What about pizza. Do you like pizza?” Alfie looks towards Gabriel in confusion. Dean is busy watching Castiel because he seems to be putting something together in his head if his furrowed brow is anything to go by. “Do…you…like…pizza?” The voice seems to be getting frustrated.

“Y-yeah,” Alfie stutters. “Pizza is good.” This is not a typical ransom call. Something else is going on here.

“Good,” the voice says excitedly. “I like pizza too.”

Alfie sniffles, a couple tears finally spilling over. “Please, can I talk to Matt now?” There’s silence from the other end and then what sounds like a door opening or closing. “Hello?” Alfie asks.

“Al-Alfie?” The voice is low and slurred. It sounds like the unsub is most-likely drugging Matt to keep him compliant. “Alfie is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me!” Alfie says frantically. “Where are you? What can you see?”

“I… I see a tree.” Matt’s voice suddenly cuts off and there’s the sound of a door closing before the distorted voice resumes speaking. “I want one million dollars,” the voice says. “One million dollars is what I’m owed. You’ll wait by the phone, and in exactly fifteen minutes I will call again with detailed instructions for the drop.” The unsub hangs up quickly. Alfie has fully started crying now, so his father leads him out of the room leaving just the BAU members around the table to try and figure out their next move.

“Were you able to trace it?” Gabriel asks Sam.

Sam shakes his head. “He was probably using a disposable cell phone. They’re impossible to trace.”

“He said he could see a tree,” Jo says quietly.

“He sounded drugged,” Dean says. “That could mean that the unsub isn’t very strong… that he needs to keep him drugged to control him or keep him quiet.”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Jo continues. “If he hasn’t blindfolded him, that means he’s probably not planning on letting him go. As soon as he gets that money—“

“He’ll kill him,” Castiel finishes. They all look around at each other hopelessly. They have fifteen minutes to try and figure out what their next move is. Now that they know this could likely turn into a murder and not just a ransom, they’ll have to adjust their plan. Dean just hopes they can figure out who this guy is before he kills that kid.


	6. The Admirer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't planning on posting an update to this yet since I have other stories I need to update, but after the finale last night I think we can all use some fanfic. This chapter was already written so I figured I'd go ahead and post it. 
> 
> I'm in the process of moving right now as well as applying for graduate school, but I hope to have more time to write in the coming weeks so I'll be able to start updating my other fics as well.
> 
> As far as the finale goes I'm not posting spoilers because I'm not sure if everyone has seen it, but I think I'm okay with it. At first I was very mad, but basically where I stand is that I think the ending for each character was what I wanted. How they got there was a fucking mess though. So I liked the ending, but not the finale if that makes sense. I think a lot of it can be blamed on COVID and them not being able to bring certain people back or being forced to change things, but overall I'm fine with it. Very emotional, but fine. I've adored this show for a decade, and that doesn't change now just cause it's over

The BAU team gathers around the dining room table where they’ve set up the phone and their computers. They talk in hushed tones to try and figure out what their next move is. They know they have a ticking clock and not much time to figure this out. Sam is just confused. This is going differently than every ransom and kidnapping case he’s ever studied. Maybe Gabriel was right. He needs to start thinking outside the box.

“He said he was owed one million dollars,” Gabriel says quietly. “He obviously feels like Senator Pike has abused him in some way to where he owes him money to make up for it.”

“Or maybe that’s his way of trying to deflect responsibility,” Jo reasons.

“It sounded like he was reading a script when he made his demands,” Sam says.

“The rest of the conversation wasn’t like that though,” Dean chimes in from beside him. “When he was talking to Alfie he seemed relaxed and at ease.”

“What does that mean?” Jessica asks.

“I think he already knew him,” Dean says. Sam has been thinking the same thing. It fits. The unsub kills Matt’s girlfriend in a personal way, kidnaps Matt, and then is only interested in speaking to Alfie. This isn’t about Mr. Pike, it’s about the twins. “How much time do we have?”

Sam looks down at his watch. “Five minutes.” Dean looks over towards the kitchen and quickly stands up to walk over there. At first Sam is prepared to join his brother, but then he figures if Dean needed his help he would’ve said something. Sam sits back down at the desk and prepares himself for the incoming call.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Dean strides over to the kitchen angrily. He’s not sure if Alfie thinks he’s blind, but he’s not. He’d seen the eighteen year old grab a bottle of bourbon from the display in the dining room and try to sneak into the kitchen. There are agents all over the place! Dean isn’t sure why Alfie thought he’d be able to get away with it.

He walks up to the kid and grabs the glass away from him before he can take a sip. Alfie turns around to complain. “I know I’m underage, but do you think you could give me a pass just this one night? My brother is missing.”

Dean calms himself down before responding. It won’t do any good to yell at the kid. “I understand that, but the unsub is going to call back, and he’s probably going to want to talk to you again. We need you to be alert.” Alfie’s eyes start to tear up. Dean hears another pair of footsteps enter the room. He turns around and sees that it’s Agent Novak. He’s probably coming to check in on them. Dean hadn’t exactly been subtle when he ran over here.

“Have you worked many cases like this?” Alfie asks him.

“I’ve seen my fair share,” Dean replies.

“I don’t know how you do it,” Alfie says. “How do you work a job like this?”

“Most of the people we catch are cowards,” Dean says. “They prey mostly on women and children because they’re easier to overpower physically. There’s nothing more satisfying then catching these dicks and knowing they’re going to get locked away.” Alfie wipes away a tear as it starts to fall. “Come on, he’s going to call back soon.”

Dean leads Alfie back into the dining room with his hand gently resting on the kid’s shoulder. As he passes by Castiel, the older man gives him a hint of a smile. That’s a small improvement in their relationship anyways. Up until now it’s been mostly glares between the two of them. Dean hopes Castiel has forgiven his earlier behavior when they first started working together. He’d made a lot of assumptions about the other agent and was jealous about not getting the promotion to Assistant Unit Chief. That’s all water under the bridge now. Castiel has proven himself very capable, and as far as what happened in Illinois, Dean now knows now that he didn’t get the full story initially. There’s only so much you can glean from a short article in the newspaper. Seeing firsthand how that case has affected him makes Dean much more sympathetic towards him.

The phone begins to ring right on schedule, and Dean and Castiel walk back into the dining room to take up the same spots they’d been in for the first call: Dean standing behind Sam and Castiel sitting next to Alfie with Gabriel on the other side.

The distorted voice immediately starts talking once Gabriel answers the call. “Alfie is going to do everything. He will gather up the money and put it into a duffel bag. He is the only one allowed to touch the money. Alfie will make the drop alone. If you use a look-alike, Matt dies. If someone follows him, Matt dies. Alfie will get in his car alone. If anyone is with him, Matt dies.”

Sam starts writing furiously, and Dean looks over his shoulder again to see what he’s writing. _“Wants Alfie alone? Trying to isolate him?”_

“I will call Alfie on a cell-phone as he drives to give him directions on where to go for the drop. He must make the drop at three am exactly. He must follow each instruction to the letter or Matt dies.” The voice hangs up the phone without giving anyone time to reply. There’s a moment of silence while the team processes this information and tries to decide how to proceed. Alfie and Larry Pike look around at the different agents nervously.

“We can’t let him go alone,” Castiel says, breaking the silence.

“But he said if anyone follows Alfie he’s going to kill Matt,” Larry Pike says frantically.

“If we just use one unmarked car and keep it out of sight we won’t be noticed,” Castiel replies. His tone is such that it leaves no room for argument. Dean agrees with him though. That call was very odd, nothing like what you’d expect in a normal ransom call.

“If my son dies…” Larry trails off. “Excuse me.” He quickly gets up and walks out of the room.

Gabriel stands up and walks over to Alfie. “Come on, we need to get you the money.”

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

It takes a few hours to get everything set up for the drop. Now it’s almost three in the morning, and Alfie is in his car with the bag of money, waiting for a call to tell him where to go. Castiel is sitting with Dean in the unmarked car they’re going to use to tail Alfie from a safe distance. Gabriel wanted to make sure only experienced agents are tailing Alfie since the unsub swore he’d kill Matt if anybody followed him. Castiel is driving while Dean sits shotgun. They’re sitting in a parking lot while they wait for one of the BAU members to call them and tell them where to go. Right then Dean’s phone rings, and he answers it quickly, putting it on speaker.

“Sam,” he says by way of greeting.

“Alfie’s car has a GPS tracker in it, so we’ll be able to see where he goes.”

Castiel shakes his head, and Dean replies, “Sammy, you know the first thing this guy is going to do is have him switch cars. Where is he heading right now?”

They hear Sam typing from the other end of the line. “It looks like a parking lot next to a car rental company.” Sam sighs. The unsub is definitely going to make him switch cars. He’s smart, which is going to make him harder to catch.

Castiel drives them to the rental car lot. It’s not that far away so it only takes a few minutes to get there. He parks them in a side parking lot where they still have visual on Alfie, but the unsub most likely won’t notice them. The two of them watch as Alfie’s car pulls into the lot.

“I bet one of these cars already has a key in the ignition with a disposable cell-phone for him to switch to,” Dean says, frustrated.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Castiel sighs. “He’s going to want to get rid of any method for us to track Alfie.”

Dean punches the glove compartment lightly with his fist. “He’s probably going to have Alfie drive around for a while in the rental car just to make sure none of us are following him.” Dean sighs and rubs his hand across his face. Castiel is momentarily distracted by the sound of Dean’s light stubble scratching his palm. _Not the time._

“What’s wrong?” Castiel asks.

“Something’s not right about this. I’ve been thinking the entire time that this isn’t a regular ransom case,” Dean starts. “What if he’s been listening to us somehow?”

“They did a sweep of the house for bugs when we first got here,” Castiel reminds him.

“Come on, Novak.” Dean is getting more frustrated. “The instructions were way too vague and focused mostly on Alfie being alone.”

“Alright, if you were the unsub what would you have done differently?” Castiel asks. He’s worked a couple ransom cases in the past, but probably not as many as Dean has worked.

“I would’ve told them not to involve the police. One million dollars, no consecutive serial numbers, no explosive dyes in the bag, no tracking device in the money, no tracking devices in the car...”

“Okay.” Castiel gets the point. The instructions definitely were too simple. “Why didn’t he tell us to do any of that then?” Dean huffs and shrugs. They stop talking when they see Alfie step out of the car and start walking towards the other side of the parking lot. He’s holding a cell-phone to his ear, probably to hear whatever the unsub is telling him.

Dean gasps. “Novak, this was never about the money,” he says frantically, opening the car door. “It’s about the twins.”

Castiel figures out what he means quickly. “This isn’t a ransom drop, it’s a second kidnapping!” The two of them jump out of the SUV and sprint across the parking lot towards Alfie. Another car comes racing through the parking lot before stopping next to Alfie.

“Alfie, get down!” Castiel yells. The unsub must see them, because he quickly starts speeding off again to leave the parking lot. Castiel runs over towards Alfie while Dean fires off a couple shots to try and take out the car’s tires, but unfortunately it's quickly out of range. At least they’d managed to stop the guy from getting Alfie too. They need to get back to the house and figure this out.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Dean shoves the front door to the Pike house open angrily. He’s annoyed that they hadn’t managed to catch the unsub before he drove off. They could’ve ended things right then. He almost walks right into Larry Pike who was waiting just on the other side of the door.

“Alfie is okay,” Dean reassures him before he can worry.

Jo greets him with a small, “Hey,” that conveys everything it needs to. She’s sorry that they weren’t able to catch the guy, but she’s glad he’s alright. He gives her the tiniest smile in return. Gabriel goes over to greet his brother in a similar manner.

The phone starts ringing before they’re able to start regrouping. It’s most likely the unsub. Sam quickly sits back down at the desk and puts his headphones on. Everyone else takes up their positions. Dean answers the phone since Castiel isn’t close to it, but once Castiel walks over, Dean lets him have control.

“That was fun,” the unsub says. It sounds like he’s out of breath. The adrenaline of almost getting caught must be pumping through his veins. “Are you there, Alfie?” Castiel immediately puts his hand up to tell Alfie not to say anything. “Are you there?” Alfie looks at him curiously, but he just shakes his head again. They don’t want to give this guy what he wants. What they learned after the failed ransom drop is that this unsub isn’t interested in money, he’s interested in the twins. “I know you felt it, Alfie,” the unsub continues. “I know you could tell how close I got to you, but those FBI agents figured out my plan right before I was able to get you. I was so close to having you both.”

Dean looks over at Sam to see that he’s writing again. He can’t tell what he’s writing from this angle, but he can tell that his big brain is piecing something together while he listens. That’s what Sam is good at. Dean, on the other hand, isn’t good for much besides pounding in skulls. That’s why he’s so frustrated that he’d let the unsub get away so easily.

“Why are you doing this?” Alfie asks, and Dean tries to stop him, but the kid doesn’t listen.

“Because you asked me to, Alfie,” the unsub replies, heatedly. “You asked me with those looks you’d send me, the way you talked, and the way you acted. I’m not stupid, Alfie.” Dean looks over at Sam who is violently motioning for him to mute the call. Dean mutes it before Alfie can say anything else.

“What are you doing?” Alfie asks him.

“Don’t answer him,” Dean says.

“You asked me to, Alfie,” the unsub is getting angrier now. “You wanted it!”

Alfie pushes past Dean to unmute the call. “Alfie, no,” Dean tries to stop, but it’s pointless. Alfie is already yelling back at the unsub, giving him what he wants. “What do you want?!” Alfie yells.

“I want you! It might not be right now, or next week, but someday I will have you,” the unsub sounds completely confident in everything he’s saying. “I promise we will be together.” The unsub hangs up the phone, and Dean shoots a glance over towards where Castiel is standing next to Gabriel. He looks like he’s starting to figure out what’s going on here too.

The older agent steps forward towards the table where Alfie and Larry are sitting next to where Sam has his equipment set up. “We can’t let Alfie speak to him anymore,” Castiel says forcefully.

“Why not?” Alfie asks, confused.

Sam speaks up, taking his headphones off. “It will just feed his delusions,” he says. “Was your brother involved in any serious relationship before the kidnapping?”

“Just with the girlfriend who was killed,” Larry says. “They’d been together for a couple years. It was getting serious.”

Castiel’s focused eyes meet Dean’s, and for a moment it’s easy to forget they’re in the middle of a case. Dean wants nothing more than to lean in and closely examine every different shade of blue in his eyes. Dean coughs and then says, “That could’ve been the trigger.” He still feels Castiel’s intense gaze on him, but he doesn’t look up to meet it. There’s only so much prolonged eye contact he can handle if he’s going to stay professional.

“Can someone explain what is going on?” Larry Pike asks, starting to get frustrated.

“It’s a delusion known as Erotomania,” Sam explains. “It’s the belief that someone of a higher status, usually a celebrity, is in love with them. People with this disorder believe that the objects of their affection are subtly professing their love for them through innocuous interactions.”

Castiel continues, “The unsub said you asked for it through the looks you sent him.”

“Her,” Dean corrects, and everyone turns to look at him. “The unsub is a woman.”

“How do you know?” Gabriel asks.

“The distortion,” he says. “I couldn’t figure out the reason why the unsub was distorting their voice during the calls, but now it makes sense. We were all expecting a male unsub, but I think the unsub is a woman.”

“So this person thinks she’s in love with Alfie and Matt?” Larry asks disgustedly.

“Yes,” Sam replies. “People with this disorder fully believe that the objects of their obsession return their feelings. They don’t profess these feelings through words, but in small actions and glances.” Larry puts his arm around Alfie as if he’ll be able to shield his son from this person. Dean can’t blame him.

Gabriel steps over to Dean and claps him on the back. “You’re the expert on obsessional crimes, Dean-o. It’s your lead.”

Dean thinks for a moment. This unsub is going to call them back. It’s only a matter of time. She’s probably trying to compose herself first. Dean also knows that in order to make her sweat and reveal something about herself, they’ll need to keep Alfie and Larry away from the phone. That might prove to be tricky.

“I need Alfie and Larry to wait in the other room," he says firmly.

“What?” The two of them ask at the same time.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t allow either of you to interact with this unsub any further.” Dean puts as much authority as he can into his voice. Gabriel gave him the lead, and he intends to be as professional as possible. “If you want to be able to hear what’s going on, you can wait in the living room with Jo and Jessica.” The two of them look like they’re going to complain, but then Dean figures they realize they’re lucky they’ll be allowed to listen in at all. Before Jo can leave, Dean grabs her hand and leans down to quietly tell her something. “Do _not_ let them come into this room,” he says. She nods and goes over to the other room where the Pikes are already standing with Jessica.

Now that that’s taken care of, Dean assembles the rest of the BAU team together in the dining room where the phone is set up. “We need to re-check everyone on Senator Pike’s staff against the profile of a stalker.”

“On it!” Gabriel says. “But aren’t stalking behaviors diverse?”

“There are overlapping characteristics between types of stalkers,” Dean explains. “Narcissistic, exaggerated sense of self-worth, history of bad relationships—“

“What do we know so far?” Gabriel interrupts him.

“Most-likely white, obviously female, intelligent way of speaking,” Dean lists.

“Seemingly intelligent,” Castiel corrects him. “She’s pretentious. She wants us to think she’s smarter than she is.”

“Whatever job position she has, she had to work for it,” Dean says. “She probably feels under-valued which would be why she said Larry Pike ‘owes’ her one million dollars.”

“We also need to face the possibility that Matt might already be dead,” Sam whispers so the Pikes can’t hear them from the other room.

“I’d like to not worry about that until we have to,” Dean says to Sam and then turns to Gabriel. “Call Charlie if you need help narrowing down the list. She’s on call whenever we work a case.” Charlie is relatively new to the unit. She’s been working at the FBI for a while, but when Dean met her and realized how helpful her particular skillset could be to the BAU, he’d talked Bobby into letting her join as their analyst-slash-hacker-slash-anything-computer-related. Usually Dean is the go-between when they need to involve Charlie, which is why he told Gabriel to call her if he needs to.

Dean turns to Sam. “Keep analyzing her speech patterns and trying to track her phone.”

Gabriel heads off to go look at the staff list. Sam sits back down at the table to get ready for the next call, leaving Dean alone with Castiel. Agent Novak stares at him in that intense way he has, waiting to hear Dean’s plan for how to deal with the unsub. Dean clears his throat noisily. He doesn’t know how Castiel is able to make him feel so on edge and uncomfortable. He’s never had this problem with authority before, and now Castiel has only been here a week and Dean is having all sorts of problems.

“I say we apply pressure to see if we can get her to screw up,” Dean says.

Castiel nods. “I’ll follow your lead.” The way he says it is so sincere that it makes Dean’s brain stutter to a stop. He has to clear his throat again before he tells Castiel that they should prepare for the next call to come in soon. The two of them sit down at the table and wait.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

It takes about ten minutes for the unsub to call again. Castiel watches Dean from across the table. Since he’s leading this investigation now, he’s going to be the one to answer the call. Castiel would be lying if he said watching Dean assertively give orders to the other BAU members, himself included, didn’t turn him on a bit. Normally he prefers to be the one giving orders, but he’d make an exception for Dean.

_He’d make a lot of exceptions for Dean._

Aaaaand now he needs to focus on the case. This little attraction or whatever it is that he’s developed for Dean has to stop. He’s Dean’s boss…literally, not in the fun way. He needs to stay professional.

The phone continues to ring, and Dean continues to ignore it. Castiel knows he’s trying to piss off the unsub, but he’s still getting stressed out with the urge to reach across the table and answer the phone himself. He looks over towards the door to the living room where Jo stands in front of Larry and Alfie Pike. The two of them look confused at why Dean isn’t answering the phone. Now Castiel understands why he’d told Jo to keep them in the living room. This could get hard for them to listen to.

The phone keeps ringing, and Castiel has to fight the urge to order Dean to answer it. Dean is in charge here, and he knows what he’s doing. After the seventh ring, Dean answers the phone and immediately hangs up. Castiel looks over towards the living room and sees Larry and Alfie tensely watching while Jo makes sure they stay back. The phone starts to ring again.

“Hello?” Dean answers it, pretending he doesn’t know who is calling.

“That better have been a technical difficulty, because if you actually hung up on—“ Dean hangs the phone up again.

“Answer the phone,” Larry says from the other room. “You’re going to drive her crazy.”

“Jo, keep them quiet, please,” Dean says as the phone starts to ring a third time. Castiel can see Jo trying to quietly reassure the Pikes that Dean knows what he’s doing and this is all part of the plan. Castiel just hopes Dean is right. This sort of stress tactic can be very helpful in finding out information about an unsub, but if used at the wrong time, it can cause an unsub to lash out and kill whoever they’re holding hostage.

Dean answers the phone. “Pike residence,” he says sarcastically.

The unsub on the other end of the line is already yelling. “What are you doing?! I will kill him if you don’t stop. Do you underst—“ Dean hangs up again. Castiel looks over at the living room and sees that Alfie is crying. Jessica is holding him and rubbing his arm soothingly. He can tell that she is also stressed out. She’s very new at this job, and she’s not a profiler so she doesn’t know how these tactics work.

Dean ignores the phone as it starts to ring again. Larry Pike starts straining against Jo, trying to get into the room. “Answer the phone!” He yells.

“Mr. Pike, I am handling this,” Dean says firmly. “If you can’t control yourself, I’m going to have to ask you to leave the room.” Castiel feels a surge of arousal flow through him that he does his best to ignore. Definitely not the time or place.

After a couple more rings, Dean finally answers the phone. “He is dead!” The unsub yells. “If you hang up on me again, I will tear him apart!”

“I’m sorry, I think you have the wrong number,” Dean says, hanging up.

Castiel flinches. He can hear Alfie and Larry Pike crying in the other room while Jo and Jessica try to console them. “Dean, come on…”

Dean shoots him a tiny smile. “Have a little faith, Cas.” Castiel doesn’t have time to be confused at the second use of that nickname because the phone starts to ring again. Dean answers it immediately.

“Put Alfie on the phone,” the unsub says, sounding calmer this time.

“No,” Dean says stoically. “You’re done talking to Alfie.”

“Wow, listen to that tone of authority,” the unsub says sarcastically. “But then again you always wanted to be the Unit Chief, didn’t you Winchester? You’re a bit of an aspirant, aren’t you? An epigone if I ever saw one.”

Dean chuckles. “You sound really educated, but we both know that isn’t true. I also know that you’re not a man despite how you try to distort your voice. Why don’t you turn that off so we can hear what you really sound like?”

There's a momentary pause. “Have it your way,” the unsub says, revealing her real voice for the first time. Castiel is surprised Dean was able to get her to turn off her distorter so easily. Now there’s a chance they’ll be able to recognize her voice. They all assume she has to be someone in Senator Pike’s staff. She has to be someone who has regular, but tangential contact with the twins. Close enough that she’d be able to form a delusional attachment to them, but far away enough that they wouldn’t notice her.

“I know about all of you!” The unsub yells angrily. “The ambitious Agent Milton. I bet he wants to be director of the BAU someday. Would he sabotage Bobby Singer to get there? I think he would… Castiel Novak, a textbook definition of post-traumatic stress if I ever saw one. He has a pregnant wife in the hospital and yet he chooses to keep working. Seems like that marriage is going swimmingly… Dean Winchester, an expert in criminal psychology yet unable to diagnose your own obvious daddy issues. You think you’re hot stuff, but you’re just a mindless hunk of beef.” Dean huffs out a laugh. "Then there's Sam Winchester, obviously the brains of the family, but they don't give out PhDs for dating do they? Maybe if they did, you'd be able to get laid." 

Sam shoots a confused look around the room at the mention of his name, but then goes back to trying to track the cell phone. Castiel looks over at Dean. He’s leaning back in his chair with a big smile on his face. This is exactly what he was hoping for. The unsub continues her long rant, “Beautiful Jo was promoted too soon. She doesn’t have what it takes to make it in the BAU boys club.” Castiel looks over at Jo. She’s still holding Larry and Alfie back, but he can tell by the expression on her face that she’s pissed. “I know all about you, and you don’t threaten me!” The unsub hangs up the phone.

“What the hell was that?” Larry yells from the other room.

“She was showboating,” Dean replies.

“You don’t know that! How can you know that?” Larry yells.

Dean stands up. “Mr. Pike, I have learned more about this unsub in the past five minutes than I have in the past five hours.”

Larry keeps pushing on Jo, so she finally lets him by. She doesn’t really need to hold him back now that the phone call has ended. “Why is she focusing on you guys now?” Larry asks.

“Because we’re keeping her from interacting with the boys,” Dean explains.

“She said she knows all about you guys…”

“She’s trying to prove how smart she is by profiling us, but she accidentally let something slip,” Castiel says with a tiny smile. “And now we know how to find her.”

“Well then why are you guys just standing around?” Larry asks angrily. “Everyone is just standing around here. Go find my son!” One of the secret service agents comes forward and grabs onto Larry. Castiel can’t hear what she says to him, but Larry deflates and lets her lead him to the couch away from the BAU team. Jo and Jessica come to join in with their huddle.

Now that they’re alone again, Dean says, “For the unsub to know that much about us personally, she has to be one of us.”

Gabriel rejoins them now that he’s finished going through the list of people who work with Larry Pike. “I’m having Charlie check up on the agents who work out of this field office.”

“Good,” Dean says. “She has to be one of them. She knows this house, and she knows this family.”

“There are a few hundred agents working in this area,” Sam says skeptically. “Senator Pike must know quite a few of them. This could take a while to narrow down.”

“Well, while we’re working on narrowing down the list, we need to get Alfie out of here,” Jo says worriedly. “The unsub has access to this building, and we don’t know who she is. We need to get him to a safe house.”

“We also need to limit the number of agents he comes in contact with,” Castiel says.

It only takes them a few minutes to inform Larry and Alfie of this new development and help Alfie pack some clothes into a go-bag. Hopefully he won’t have to stay at the safe house for long, but it’s better to be prepared. Dean and Castiel drive Alfie to the safe house with a couple other agents who have been vetted. They should be safe from the unsub here.

When they get to the safe house, the other agents who work with Larry Pike say they’re going to watch the perimeter to make sure nobody gets into the house. Then Dean and Castiel show Alfie to one of the bedrooms that’s actually furnished so he can get some much needed rest. Most of the house is only partially furnished. This isn’t a typically used safe house, but the FBI makes sure they own a few properties around every densely populated area to use as safe houses in case they’re needed.

Castiel’s phone starts ringing in his pocket. He steps out of Alfie’s bedroom and closes the door to answer it. “Novak,” he says.

“Agent Novak, it’s Sam. I’m trying to figure out how the unsub could’ve been listening in on us from back at the Pikes’ house. We made sure to debug the place before we set up the phone. Do you have any ideas?”

“I’m not sure, but I think you’re right,” Castiel says. He looks over towards the kitchen and sees Dean splashing some cold water on his face. They’ve all been working for a long time, and the exhaustion is starting to creep up on them. “It’s almost like he knows exactly what’s happening on our end as soon as it happens.”

He can hear Sam mumbling on the other end of the line, but he’s not sure if he’s meant to hear it. “Think outside the box. Think outside the box.” There’s a momentary pause. Castiel is about to speak again when Sam says, “I think I’ve got it! There has to be a listening device in the Pikes’ house.”

“But you just said they debugged the place before we got here,” Castiel says, confused.

“Yes, they debugged it and then they brought in their own gear,” Sam says excitedly. “This is someone very close to the Pike family. Not just someone who works with him on the fringes. This woman has close access.”

“Close enough to be given details of the safe-house transfer,” Castiel gasps. “Tell Gabriel!” He hangs up the phone and turns around to go tell Dean that the unsub may have been one of the agents they brought with them to the safe-house, but Dean is lying on the floor unconscious. It looks like the unsub approached him while he was washing his face and shocked him with a taser from behind.

Castiel quickly races towards the room they’d set Alfie up in. He hopes he’s not too late. He opens the bedroom door slowly and sees Alfie sitting on the bed, backed up all the way against the wall. He looks terrified. A woman wearing an FBI jacket is holding a switchblade in her hand as she approaches Alfie. She has long, brown hair and looks a bit mousy. In a crowded room, nobody would notice her, but now that Castiel is looking at her, he remembers seeing her multiple times throughout the night at the Pikes’ house. She’s the agent who tried to console Mr. Pike after he got upset by the last phone call.

“Put the knife down,” Castiel orders her.

“Please, you don’t understand the relationship I have with these boys,” the agent says calmly.

“I said put it down now!” Castiel has his gun raised to her, but he wants to be able to take her in without having to shoot. He’s a good marksman, but it’s a small room, and Alfie is in danger of being accidentally hit.

The agent slowly lowers the knife, and Castiel grabs her, spinning her around and forcing her up against the wall so he can cuff her. “Are you okay?” He asks Alfie after he has her in handcuffs. Alfie just nods, tear tracks visible on his cheeks. Castiel turns back to the woman. “Where is Matt?” The woman doesn’t answer, so he pulls her away from the wall a bit and then slams her back into it. “Where is Matt?” She coughs out the address, and Castiel immediately calls Gabriel to go pick him up.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Dean winces as he attempts to put a bandage on his taser burn. He feels angry, but mostly ashamed. He can’t believe he let that unsub get the drop on him like that. Imagine if she’d used her knife instead of the taser! He looks over and sees Agent Novak helping Alfie into the ambulance with Larry Pike and Matt. They’d been able to find Matt quickly after the unsub told them the location. Besides being drugged, he doesn’t show any signs of physical trauma. The mental and emotional trauma he went through after being kidnapped is a different story, but that’s a job for therapists and social workers. As far as the BAU is concerned, the case is closed.

Castiel walks over towards where Dean is sitting at the kitchen table trying to get a good look at the spot where he was tazed. Unfortunately it’s on his hip closer to his back which makes it hard for him to reach. “Do you need help with that?” Castiel asks as he approaches.

At first Dean wants to dismiss him, but he really could use the help. “Please.” Castiel bends over to get a closer look at the wound, then he winces in sympathy. “It’s not as bad as it looks,” Dean says. It hurts, but he’s definitely had worse. Being shot is worse. Speaking of being shot, he wants to ask how Castiel’s arm is doing after being shot on his first case at the BAU. Or how his leg is healing after the incident in Chicago. He’s noticed that Castiel still walks with a bit of a limp though it probably wouldn’t be noticeable to the untrained eye. It’s only noticeable to Dean since he’s spent an embarrassing amount of time staring at his boss.

Dean isn’t sure where Castiel grabbed a first aid kit from, but suddenly he has one and is digging through it to find the proper supplies. Dean tries his best to be unaffected as he feels Castiel’s long fingers gently applying cream to the wound and then covering it with a bandage.

“There you go,” Castiel says, his voice gruff.

“Thanks.” Dean runs his hand through his hair awkwardly. He’s not sure where this tension comes from, but whenever it’s just him and Castiel, he gets really nervous. He changes the subject. “How did you get her to tell you where she was holding Matt?”

Castiel smiles. “I found a creative way to persuade her.”

_What does that mean?_ “Did your ‘creative way’ happen to be illegal?” Dean asks with a smirk.

“Eh, it’s probably a shade of grey,” Castiel responds. “The important thing is that we got Matt back and he wasn’t injured.”

“I’m just lucky she didn’t decide to gut me while I was unconscious,” Dean sighs. He’s still feeling ashamed about fucking up that majorly. It’s not like him to make mistakes on the job like that. “I had my back turned like an idiot.”

“She wasn’t interested in you,” Castiel says soothingly. “Her only priority was the boys.”

Dean sighs again before standing up. Then the two of them walk towards where the other team members are waiting in the SUV to head back to the Quantico. Dean is really glad they’re only a quick drive away instead of a long flight. He’s ready to take some pain killers and pass out.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

The first thing Castiel does upon getting back to their side of town is drive over to the hospital where Amelia is staying. It’s after visiting hours, but he explains that he’s her husband and wasn’t able to see her earlier because he was working. The nurse smiles and shows him to Amelia’s room.

He sees her asleep on the hospital bed and feels a lump in his throat. Even though she assured him it wasn’t his fault, he still feels bad. He should’ve been there to help her so she wouldn’t have to climb up the ladder. His chest tightens when he sees the cast on her broken ankle.

“Hey, you,” Amelia says groggily. “Didn’t expect you to be back so soon.”

Castiel sits down in the chair next to her bed. “This case was nearby so we didn’t have to take the jet.”

“You don’t have to stay here,” Amelia says. “I’m sure you’re exhausted. Get some sleep and come back in the morning.”

“Nope,” Castiel smiles. “I’m right where I need to be.” Amelia smiles when he grabs onto her hand and then closes her eyes again to fall back asleep. She’s right, though. He is exhausted. He leans his head up against the hospital bed. Even though the chair is uncomfortable, and he’s probably going to have a crick in his neck when he wakes up, he’s too tired to care. He closes his eyes and is asleep within minutes.


	7. The Bus Trip

Dean is barely able to pull himself out of bed the next morning. It feels like he hasn’t slept in a week even though he got a full night’s rest after their last case. He’s definitely not in the mood to go into the office today, but he has to. Rent doesn’t pay itself. It helps that he and Sam are sharing a two-bedroom apartment, but living in Washington D.C. is still very expensive. It’s much more expensive than it had been to live back in Kansas.

He puts on a flannel shirt and jeans. He tries to avoid wearing a suit unless he absolutely has to. One of the advantages of being in a specialty group of the FBI is they aren’t forced to dress like typical feds all of the time. Technically the only members of the team required to wear suits are the Unit Chiefs, though Gabriel often neglects to follow that rule. Bobby doesn’t really care, but he does know that it matters what other law enforcement agencies think of them. When they’re out on a case they have to at least wear dress shirts and ties.

After Dean’s finished getting ready for the day he goes into the common area where Sam is already wide awake and making breakfast. His brother gets up obscenely early to run or bike or whatever it is he does. Dean, on the other hand, can’t string full sentences together before he’s had his coffee. Luckily Sam knows that about him and is already brewing a pot.

“So I was thinking,” Sam says while he pours a bowl of cereal for himself. Dean braces himself for whatever Sam is going to say next. ‘Thinking’ and ‘morning’ aren’t two things that go together in his opinion. “I don’t think we have a case scheduled for today unless something unexpected comes up. I was thinking we should go to the Roadhouse tonight.”

Dean wonders why Sam would have to ask him carefully like he was expecting him to say no. The Roadhouse is one of his favorite places to hang out. There must be some sort of catch. “Okay…what’s with the build-up? Out with it.”

“I don’t know,” Sam hedges. “I was just thinking maybe we could invite Novak to come along with us. His wife is in the hospital, and I feel like he could use a night out to relax. It would help him get to know us better.”

Dean stares at him. “You want to invite our boss out for drinks?”

“It wouldn’t just be the three of us,” Sam says. “I figured we could take the whole team. Jo is obviously going to be there already. I was thinking you could ask Charlie, and I’ll ask Jessica.”

Dean’s face splits open into a grin. “Oh, I see what this is about. You want a casual way to ask Jessica out for drinks.” Sam immediately denies it, but he’s blushing so Dean knows he’s on the right track. “Okay, okay. I’ll ask Novak and Charlie if they want to come.”

When they get to the BAU it becomes immediately clear that Sam was right. They don’t have any cases scheduled for today. That’s a blessing and a curse. A blessing because the constant traveling can get a bit tiring, but a curse because it means they have to spend all day catching up on boring paperwork. It’s definitely Dean’s least favorite part of the job. He sighs and sits down at his desk, eyeing the mountain of files on it with disdain. At least he has a fun night ahead of him to look forward to.

Jo is already hard at work by the time Sam and Dean show up. Her desk is right across from Dean’s so the two of them face each other. There is a little partition to separate the desks, but they can see each other over it. Dean often uses that to make funny faces at her whenever they happen to look up at the same time. Sam’s desk is across the walkway from theirs. There is another desk across from his, but it’s empty at the moment. There’s technically another opening at the BAU for a fourth profiler, but Bobby is very picky about who he allows onto the team. He’ll only fill the spot when he finds the perfect candidate.

Gabriel is already up in his office, as is Bobby. Dean looks over towards Novak’s office, which is something he’s found himself doing a lot recently. The door is still closed and the light is off. He must be late for some reason. Maybe he’s visiting his wife in the hospital. His wife. His _pregnant_ wife. Dean needs to remember that he’s married and stop fantasizing about him or whatever it is he’s been doing. What he really needs is to get laid. Maybe that would help him stop thinking about blue eyes and dark, messy hair.

Think of the devil, and he shall appear. Castiel Novak walks briskly into the BAU wearing his usual tan trench coat and navy suit even though today is an office day and they don’t technically have to dress up. Dean wonders if he actually owns any normal clothes. He looks at Dean as he passes, and Dean gives him a little nod. The older agent nods back this time, so that’s an improvement at least.

Dean looks over at Sam who is staring at him pointedly to go talk to Novak and invite him to join them for drinks after work. Dean rolls his eyes but gets up anyways. Better to get this over with. He walks up the stairs to where the offices are. All of the offices are in view of the bullpen, but this way they’re a little bit removed from the regular agents. Bobby’s office is the furthest to the left. Next to his is Milton’s, and then Novak’s is next to his. The last office belongs to Jessica, the new unit liaison.

Dean pauses awkwardly for a second outside of Novak’s closed door. He sighs and figures he better get this over with. He knocks and waits until he hears Novak’s low voice say, “Come in,” to open up the door. Dean gives the office a casual once-over. This is the first time he’s seen it since Castiel joined the team. The walls are bare, and it seems like he hasn’t decorated the place much. There is a succulent on the desk along with a few framed pictures, but that’s about it.

“Good morning, Dean,” Castiel says with a hint of a smile. “What can I do for you?”

Dean resists the urge to make a dirty joke. “There’s a cool dive bar called The Roadhouse that the team goes to sometimes to hang out. We were thinking tonight would be a good night since we’re just working on paperwork today. Would you like to join us?”

Castiel ponders for a moment before answering. “I don’t usually like going to bars, but I think I could make an exception.”

“I promise it’s a really cool place,” Dean says to reassure him. “Jo’s mom actually owns it. They serve the best bacon cheeseburger you’ll ever have.”

“I’ll need to stop by the hospital after work for a bit, but I can join up with you all later.”

“Sounds good!” Dean says enthusiastically. “Well, I guess I’ll just…go.” He awkwardly backs out of the room and closes the door behind him. Dean is the King of Charm, so why does he suddenly feel so awkward whenever he’s alone with Castiel? This is starting to get complicated.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

After work Castiel spends the early evening at the hospital with Amelia. The doctors have been monitoring Jack to make sure he wasn’t hurt in her fall. They said that Castiel is free to take Amelia home tomorrow morning. After visiting hours end, he heads over to the address Dean gave him for The Roadhouse.

Castiel really has no interest in going to a bar right now, but he couldn’t say no to Dean earlier when he asked. Plus the smile that lit up Dean’s face when he’d said yes was worth it. He is glad it’s going to be most of the team and not just him and Dean. He’s able to stay in control of himself for the most part around the others, but it’s the time he spends alone with Dean that’s becoming more difficult.

When he pulls his sedan up to the bar he notices a bunch of motorcycles out front as well as a couple older muscle cars. This definitely isn’t his usual scene. He’s almost about to pull back out of the lot and leave when he notices the black muscle car that belongs to the Winchesters. He sighs, putting his Prius in park.

The second Castiel steps inside, he’s immediately greeted by Dean. “You came!” he says enthusiastically.

“Of course I did,” Castiel replies. He figures it’s better than telling Dean he’d almost chickened out and gone home. Dean leads him over to the table where the rest of the team except for Gabriel and Bobby are sitting. Gabriel has a date with his new girlfriend Kali tonight, so Castiel knew he wouldn’t be coming. Castiel sits down in the booth next to Jo. Dean and a red-haired girl are sitting across from them. He looks around for Sam and spots his giant form sitting at the bar with Jessica.

“Hey, Dreamy,” the red-haired girl says with a smile. “I’m Charlie. We haven’t met yet because I’m usually hiding away in a den with all of my computers.”

_Dreamy?_ The confusion must show on his face because Dean gives Charlie a light shove on the shoulder. “Stop scaring him or he’ll never want to hang out with us again.” The two of them share a loaded stare which almost makes it seem like they’re communicating telepathically.

After a few seconds of that Charlie groans, “Fine. I’m going to go grab us some drinks.” She stands up. “Novak, do you want anything?”

“I’ll take whatever amber ale is on tap.” Charlie nods then looks towards Dean.

“The usual,” Dean says. Since Jo already has her drink, Charlie goes up to the bar to order for them.

“So, how do you like this place?” Jo asks.

“It has a nice atmosphere,” Castiel replies, and he means it. From the outside the place looked a bit dingy, but inside it’s warm and almost familial. A lot of the customers seem like regulars if how they’re talking to each other and the bartenders is anything to go by. “Dean said your mom owns it?”

“Yep! Before I joined the FBI I worked here,” Jo says. “I actually met Dean and Sam before I got to the BAU because they’d come here with Bobby.”

Castiel is surprised once again at how close the BAU team seems to be. His first instinct is that he’ll never be able to fit in with this group, but the fact that they’d thought to invite him along tonight might show that they’re willing to include him into their weird family of sorts. Charlie gets back to the table balancing a tray with three beers on it and carrying a plate with a slice of pie in her other hand.

Dean’s eyes immediately light up. “I love you,” he says, planting a quick kiss on her cheek when she sits down and places the pie in front of him.

“I know,” Charlie replies with a smile.

Suddenly it all makes sense. The flirty way Dean addresses Charlie when he calls her during their cases. The way he told Gabriel to call her when they were working their most recent case and needed help. The way she knew exactly what his ‘usual’ order is. Charlie and Dean must be a couple. Castiel tries his best to ignore the tightness in his chest that feels suspiciously like jealousy. He shouldn’t be jealous. He knew Dean had to be straight, and besides, he’s married so he shouldn’t be thinking about Dean in that way anyways.

The jealousy is quickly replaced with guilt and shame, and Castiel isn’t sure which feeling is worse. He spends most of the rest of the evening listening to the three of them swap stories without sharing much himself. He can feel Dean’s eyes on him from across the table a couple of times, but he never looks up to meet his gaze. He’s worried what Dean might be able to see if he were to make eye contact with him.

After an appropriate amount of time has passed, Castiel makes an excuse that he has to go back to the hospital. Visiting hours are already over, but they don’t know that. The three of them thank him for coming. His voice comes out pinched when he thanks them for inviting him. He drives home quickly, trying the entire time to convince himself he’s not attracted to a certain green-eyed agent with a charming smile.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Two days later Dean gets to the office a bit late. The first thing he notices is that Jo isn’t at her desk across from his when he puts his stuff down. Sam is getting his desk set up for a day of paperwork. Dean would like to procrastinate from having to start his own paperwork as long as is possible. He looks up towards Milton’s office, but the light is off. Then his eyes immediately are drawn to Novak’s office next door. The light is on and the door is cracked open so Dean figures that means he’s allowed to go on up. He knocks on the door frame to let Castiel know he’s there and then steps inside.

“Good morning, Dean,” Castiel says. He’s not smiling, but Dean does notice a slight upturn in his mouth. At first when Castiel joined the team Dean thought he was pretty robotic. It’s only been about a week, but he’s already starting to pick up on the tiny nuances in Castiel’s facial expressions. It’s something a normal person probably wouldn’t notice, but he’s trained to notice nonverbal expressions and subtle behavioral cues.

“Good morning,” he replies. “Where’s Jo?”

“Gabriel sent her to Texas,” Castiel says. “She’s going to interview Dean Corll for the ViCAP program.” ViCAP stands for the Violent Crime Apprehension Program that’s run by the FBI. They analyze serial violent and sexual crimes by interviewing caught or known killers. The findings from these various interviews is the foundation for their profiles. The more people they can interview, the more overlap they can discover between types of unsubs.

“Dean Corll is the Candy Man killer right?” Dean asks. That case happened back in the seventies. The Candy Man operated out of Houston, Texas, and between 1970 and 1973 he raped, tortured, and murdered at least twenty-eight teenagers and young men.

“Yes,” Castiel replies simply.

“Gabriel is letting Jo do interviews by herself already?” Dean raises his eyebrows a bit. Jo is a quick learner, but she hasn’t been here long. Typically a new profiler would be sent out with a more experienced profiler for the first couple interviews.

Dean swears Castiel almost rolls his eyes, but he stops it at the last second. “She’ll be fine, Dean.”

Dean raises his hands in defeat and is about to leave when Novak’s office phone rings. Castiel picks it up. “Hey, Jo.” Dean doesn’t want to have to leave the room and miss whatever Jo says, but he figures it would be rude to stay. He starts to leave the office and is about to close the door before Castiel says, “Wait, Dean,” and puts the phone on speaker so he can hear as well. “Is Corll cooperating with you?” Castiel asks Jo.

“I won’t get there for probably another hour or two,” Jo says. “I’m still on the bus.” The maximum security prison where Corll is being kept is in the middle of nowhere in Texas. They don’t like to keep the big prisons right next to the major cities.

“Remember he can’t lie to you—" Castiel starts.

“If I know the details of the case better than he does,” Jo says in an annoyed voice. “I’ve got this.”

Dean tries to stifle his laugh, but Jo must hear him because she playfully curses him out before hanging up the phone. Castiel raises his eyebrows at him as if asking for an explanation. “Jo’s basically a sister to me,” Dean explains with a shrug. Castiel keeps staring at him in that way of his, and Dean needs to get out of there before he gives himself away. He quickly turns around and leaves the office, worried about what Novak might be able to read on his face if he looks too closely.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

A few hours later Bobby calls the team into the conference room. Apparently there’s a situation developing, and the BAU has been asked to help. Castiel follows Gabriel downstairs to their conference room where they do the debriefings. Jessica is standing up by the projector so she can control the images she puts on the screen.

“Seven hostages are being held on a greyhound bus,” Jessica says, pulling up video of grainy black and white security camera footage. “The security guard on the bus was killed during the initial gunfire.” The video starts to play showing a man walking up and down the center aisle of the bus brandishing a gun. The other passengers on the bus are cowering behind their seats.

“Is this happening right now?” Sam asks.

Jessica nods. “In central Texas.”

“Why do they need our help?” Castiel asks, turning towards Gabriel. One fatality in a seemingly run-of-the-mill hostage situation isn’t normally something the FBI would immediately be called in to handle.

“The hostage taker seems to be suffering from some particular psychological issues that the local law enforcement thinks we’d be better equipped to handle,” Gabriel explains.

“Hang on a second,” Sam says, pointing at the video that’s still showing live grainy footage of what’s happening on the bus. “Could you back that up a few frames?” Jessica nods and rewinds the video a few seconds until the unsub is facing towards where the camera is. She presses play again, and Castiel notices what must’ve caught Sam’s eye. The left side of the unsub’s face pinches up into a grimace. It looks like he has some sort of facial tic. “Tardive dyskinesia,” Sam says with a nod.

Dean rolls his eyes. “English, please.”

Castiel speaks up, “Severe facial tics usually caused by the prolonged use of antipsychotic medications.” Dean shoots him an impressed look before turning towards Sam to confirm.

Sam nods, “That’s right. This unsub was most likely taking antipsychotic medication to treat schizophrenia.” 

“Great, and now he has seven hostages and a gun,” Dean sighs and thinks for a second. “Wait, you said this was happening on a greyhound bus in Texas?” Castiel quickly turns around to look at him and can tell that they’re thinking the same thing. Jo is on a bus in central Texas. They both start looking at the security footage to try and make out any of the hostages faces.

“Oh my god,” Dean gasps.

“What is it?” Gabriel asks. Dean points to the screen where Jo is sitting on one of the seats and trying to shield a hostage with her tiny body.

“Alright, everyone,” Bobby claps his hands together loudly and stands up. “I want you on the plane in fifteen minutes. Get your asses down to Texas!”

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

It takes them a few hours to fly to Texas and then another hour to drive out to the middle of the country where the bus was stopped. By this point local authorities have surrounded the bus and closed off this section of the highway to keep any innocent bystanders from being hurt if something happens. When they stop at the makeshift command center, they can see the bus is about one hundred yards away. The unsub won’t be able to see what they’re doing over here from this angle. Dean watches Jessica step forward to talk to the officer in charge. She may be young, but she seems like she’s going to be a good mediator between their team and the other law enforcement agencies they’ll be working with.

After a few minutes of talking to them she comes back over to where the rest of the team is waiting. “They have FBI hostage rescue snipers in position, but they don’t want to have to use them until they’ve exhausted all communication strategies,” Jessica says. “They’ve also set up a mobile command center to show the video feed from inside the bus.”

“Alright,” Gabriel says. “First thing we need to do is figure out who is on that bus— who is going to be a help in this situation and who is going to cause more problems.” Dean knows that in a hostage situation like this there are always certain types of people who may be more impulsive and could actually make it harder to keep the unsub under control. Their priority will be to try and neutralize those people before they can make the situation worse.

“I’ll call Charlie and see if she can work some magic to identify who is on the bus from that low quality camera footage,” Dean says, pulling out his cell to call Charlie. He puts it on speaker so the rest of the team will be able to hear.

“What’s a synonym for gorgeous?” Charlie answers the phone with a smile in her voice.

“Charlie…” Dean knows she loves her games and witty banter but now isn’t the time.

“You got it!” Charlie giggles. Dean feels Novak shoot him a look. He’s probably annoyed at their lack of professionalism.

Dean clears his throat before responding. “Listen to me, no playing,” he says to Charlie. “We’re sending you some security camera footage from inside the greyhound bus. I need you to figure out who all of the hostages are and give us background information on them: residences, occupations, anything that could potentially help us. The footage is a bit grainy. Do you think you can do it?”

“If they have their pictures anywhere online, I should be able to match it with my facial recognition software,” Charlie says, her tone serious.

“Charlie,” Dean says seriously. “Jo is one of the hostages.”

Dean hears her sharp intake of breath before she says, “I’m on it,” and quickly hangs up the phone. He still feels Novak’s eyes on him, but when he turns to meet those blue eyes, he doesn’t see any annoyance in them. Castiel’s face shows some unidentifiable emotion before he quickly schools his expression into his usual robotic mask.

Gabriel claps his hands together once to get their attention. “Cassie, you’re our expert on hostage situations. What do you suggest?” Dean looks at Novak again and sees the adorable furrowed brow he gets when he’s thinking. _Adorable? Calm down, Winchester._

Castiel turns towards Jessica. “Has there been any communication with the unsub yet?”

Jessica shakes her head. “Not really. The officer in charge said it took him two hours just to agree to sending a cell phone inside so we can communicate with him.” Castiel nods. “The problem is he says he won’t speak to anyone other than who he calls the ‘Supreme Entity’.”

“Do you think he’s talking about God?” Dean asks.

“No mention of religion so far,” Jessica says. “The person in charge of the negotiations pretended to be this Supreme Entity, but the unsub didn’t believe him. He’s stopped all communication at this point. He apparently gave an ultimatum that if he doesn’t get to speak to the Supreme Entity within three hours, he’s going to kill the hostages.”

“Well, if he wants to speak to this Supreme Entity, let’s give it to him,” Gabriel says. He gets back into the SUV and turns on the sirens. The rest of the team follows him. “Make sure you put on your sunglasses to look as official as possible.” Gabriel speeds up towards the stopped bus, leaving a trail of road dust in their wake. This should definitely get the unsub’s attention.

“When we step out of the vehicle, don’t look at the bus,” Castiel says. “A Supreme Entity wouldn’t care about losing a few civilians.” They all step out of the SUV and put on their sunglasses, not paying any attention at all to the bus a few feet away from them. They walk over towards the officer in charge who Jessica had spoken to earlier.

Gabriel reaches out his hand in greeting, and the officer shakes it. “As far as we can tell, your agent inside the bus is alright,” the officer says, “He hasn’t hurt anyone yet except for the security guard he killed first.”

“Has the suspect asked for anything or made any demands?” Gabriel asks. 

“He hasn’t demanded anything except he refuses to speak to anyone besides what he’s calling the ‘Supreme Entity,’ whatever the hell that means.” The officer scoffs. “How are we supposed to talk down a psychotic who refuses to talk to us?”

Dean watches Castiel step forward a bit. “It depends on the level of his particular delusion,” he says in that gravely voice of his. “We need to figure out what his delusion is if we’re going to have any chance of getting through to him.”

“Some psychotics believe they’re being sent messages by the government, God, or even aliens,” Sam explains. Dean can tell Sam is about to launch into more detail about the nature of these sorts of unsubs, but he can see the uncomfortable look on the officer’s face. 

“Alright, Sammy,” Dean puts his arm around Sam’s shoulder and steers him away. “I think he’s heard enough.” Sam gives him one of his signature bitchfaces but lets him walk them over towards the makeshift command center. He can feel Novak walking closely behind him. At the tent they’re using for the command center, they find the head of the FBI hostage rescue snipers. 

Castiel clears his throat to get the man’s attention. He’d been staring down the scope of his gun so he hadn’t noticed the three of them walk up. “Are your snipers in position?” He asks, and Dean shivers slightly. That deep voice of his is making it hard to concentrate. 

“Locked and loaded,” the man responds. “What should we tell him?” He points to the phone set up on a desk next to them.

“If we’re the Supreme Entity, we wouldn’t contact him,” Castiel explains. “We need him to make contact with us.”

Just as he’s saying that, Dean notices the unsub grab one of the women on the bus and drag her over towards the phone. “Look,” he points at the screen. It looks like Jo is unsuccessfully trying to convince the unsub to grab her instead of the woman he’s currently holding by the hair. He must have figured out that she’s an FBI agent because he’s used the security guard’s handcuffs to tie her to the seat.

The unsub orders the woman to pick up the phone and say whatever he tells her. Almost immediately the phone inside their makeshift command center starts to ring. Castiel answers it quickly. “Hello?”

Dean hears some whispering coming from the other end of the phone since Castiel put it on speaker. Then the woman must repeat whatever it is that the unsub whispered to her. “He wants to know who you are.”

Castiel replies, “Tell him we’re people who can fix this.”

There’s some more whispering from the other end of the phone, and then the woman asks, “What part of the government do you work for?”

“I never said I worked for the government,” Castiel replies calmly.

The officer sitting in the room with them looks like he’s about to interrupt, but Dean holds up his hand to stop him. “The less we tell him about ourselves, the more mysterious we’ll seem to him. We need to appear to be mysterious if he’s going to believe that we’re the Supreme Entity.” The officer nods in understanding.

The woman on the other line asks, “Are you the FBI?”

“Tell him that he can ask me himself,” Castiel says. Dean knows he wants to convince this guy to speak directly to him because then they’ll be able to get a better read on his behavior. It’ll also get the woman more out of harm’s way.

The unsub punches one of the seats on the bus a couple times, but then he takes the phone away from the woman and pushes her away. “W-who are you?” The unsub stutters.

“You know who I am,” Castiel replies confidently.

“If you’re the Supreme Entity, then you can remove it,” the unsub says. His voice is a bit clearer this time.

“Remove what?” The officer whispers. Dean holds his hand up to silence him again. Hopefully the unsub didn’t hear that.

“It won’t be that easy,” Castiel says. “It’ll take some time.”

The unsub punches the seat again. “You have one hour to remove it or I’ll kill everyone on this bus!” He hangs up the phone.

Dean makes eye contact with Castiel, and he can see that the other agent is stressed. “It? What does he mean?”

“I’m not sure,” Castiel admits, “But we have one hour to figure it out.”


	8. The Magician's Trick

The team gathers around the makeshift command center to try and brainstorm what this unsub could possibly be demanding. They don’t have much to work with. He told them he wanted “it” removed, but they have no idea what “it” could be.

Gabriel turns towards Sam. He has a notepad and a pen ready to take notes if he needs to. “Sam, are there any delusions that are more common than others to a paranoid person suffering a psychotic break?” He asks. “If we could narrow down what we’re dealing with that could help.”

Sam thinks for a moment and then responds, “Delusions are informed by people’s personal experiences, so they can be as individualistic as the people who suffer from them.”

_Well, that’s not helpful at all_ , Dean thinks. He looks over at the security camera feed from the bus. The unsub is walking back and forth, scratching his arm. That’s odd. He focuses on the feed while the rest of the team talks back and forth about the different kinds of delusions. Eventually the unsub turns in a way that Dean gets a good view of his arm. It’s covered in scars, but they aren’t uniform sizes and patterns like someone who self-harms. They’re scattered all over his arm. By the looks of the scars, they were all deep cuts too.

“Guys, look at his arm,” Dean points towards the screen. “It looks like he tried to cut whatever ‘it’ is out of his arm by himself.”

“Maybe he thinks he’s been microchipped by the government,” Gabriel offers. “He might be paranoid that the government is watching him.”

“That is one of the more common delusions,” Sam agrees. “Many paranoid psychotics think they’re being spied on by the government.”

“So, this unsub thinks he has some sort of device stuck in his arm?” Castiel asks, fascinated. Dean would find his interest cute under other circumstances, but they only have forty minutes left to figure out how to deal with this.

His phone starts buzzing in his pocket, so he walks to the other side of the command center. “Winchester,” he answers it.

“I have the names of everyone on the bus,” Charlie says without greeting him. The names will be helpful so they can figure out which people can be used as assets and which people will just be in the way. They need to neutralize as many of the problem people as they can. Thankfully, there are only seven or so people on the bus.

“There’s the driver, Clark Adams. He did a stint in rehab recently for alcoholism, so he could become an issue if he decides today is the day to relapse. The woman in the blue jacket is Meredith Allen. She’s going to graduate school at the University of Texas in Austin. The woman in the suit is Staci Manners, she’s a psychiatrist who is supposed to speak at a conference in Houston tomorrow. It looks like the unsub is her patient, Andrew May.” Dean takes notes while she continues, “She was taking him to the conference to show the developments made in treating people with severe psychosis.”

“This guy is supposed to be a good case?” Dean asks incredulously.

“I don’t do psychology, silly. I just make the computer dance,” Charlie responds with a laugh.

“Go ahead and send me everything you’ve dug up so far,” Dean says, and before she can hang up, he adds, “And Charlie, great work! Keep digging.”

“Until we speak again, Handmaiden,” she signs off with a giggle.

Dean walks back to the rest of the team with the new information. He sees that Charlie already sent over the files to his computer, so he pulls them up. There are a few more names she hadn’t given him over the phone. “Barry Gilman worked at the same office job for fifteen years before he was recently laid off,” he says, pulling up the man’s driver’s license. “He also is recently divorced.”

“Seems like he’s in the middle of a stressful time in his life,” Castiel says. “That could pose a problem for us if he decides to act rashly.”

“The bus driver is a recovering alcoholic,” Dean says. “Just did a few months in rehab, but he seems to be coping well recently.”

“Not anymore.” Gabriel points to the screen where the bus driver is sneaking sips from a flask.

Castiel sighs, “That’s not good. We don’t need a drunk in there acting impulsively.”

“The woman standing next to the unsub is his psychiatrist,” Dean fills them in. “She was supposed to be taking him to a conference to show off her successful treatment techniques for severe psychosis.”

Castiel huffs a dry laugh, “That’s unfortunate.”

“I told Charlie to keep digging, but I don’t see how this line-up is going to be any help to us, Milton,” Dean says. They’d been hoping to see if there was someone on the inside who could help diffuse the situation. They have Jo, but she’s tied up so she can’t do much to help. The psychiatrist is talking with the unsub, Andrew May. She’s probably trying to calm him down. It doesn’t seem to be working.

“All we can do is hope that none of them make the situation worse,” Gabriel sighs.

“The better question is how are we supposed to remove a microchip that isn’t there?” Castiel asks.

Sam speaks up again. “His speech patterns are regular, and he seems lucid enough, which means that we won’t be able to trick him easily.”

Dean throws his hands up in frustration, “So, he’s going to be able to see through any game we try to throw at him?”

“And if he’s convinced the chip is in his arm, he’ll be able to watch what we’re doing which will make it harder to trick him,” Castiel says. Dean looks over towards the new liaison, Jessica. She looks worried.

“What if we fake it?” Sam asks. He has that look on his face that Dean hates. Usually it means he’s going to put himself at risk. “I could conceal a chip in my palm, maybe something from a cell phone, and then do a little slight of hand.”

“Are you serious?” Dean’s voice raises in pitch. “You want to do a magic trick with this guy?” He knows Sam went through a magic phase when he was younger, but this is next-level risky. If the unsub catches Sam trying to pull one over on him, he could lash out.

“No,” Gabriel says. “We can’t risk getting another agent stuck in there.”

“I’m really good at it,” Sam insists. He pulls a dime out of his pocket and demonstrates. “I can make it appear and disappear. Watch.” He moves his hand smoothly, and the coin disappears. Then he does the same motion again, and it comes back.

Castiel and Gabriel exchange looks. They all know they have to do something. They can’t just stand here and hope the situation resolves itself. Dean knows he needs to act quickly or his baby brother is going to be sent in with an unpredictable psychotic. “Fine,” he says. “Show me how to do it.”

“What? No!” Sam says.

“If you can do it, I can do it,” Dean insists. “Show me.”

“I’ve been doing this for years, Dean. It takes a lot of practice. We have less than thirty minutes left.”

“Sam, I am not about to let you get on that bus with an armed psychotic,” Dean says forcefully.

Castiel puts his hand on Dean’s left shoulder. At first he wants to flinch away, but the touch is actually grounding. “We don’t have any other choice.”

Before Dean can argue further, Jessica steps into their huddle. “Agent Milton,” she looks towards Gabriel. “Agent Novak?”

“Yes?” Gabriel prompts.

“I was able to find some information on Andrew May,” she says quickly. “It looks like he worked at a government facility for almost ten years before he was dismissed for undisclosed reasons.”

Dean exchanges a look with Castiel before the other agent responds. “That could explain his paranoia about the government.”

“He’s been institutionalized for the last five years, and he was showing tremendous improvement… up until now.”

Gabriel claps his brother on the back. “Get him on the phone.” They call the unsub on the bus, and for a few tense seconds, they’re unsure if he’s going to answer the phone. Eventually they see the man put the gun in his pants and pick up the phone.

“Hello?” He answers shakily.

“Mr. May,” Castiel says confidently. Dean assumes using his name before the unsub tells it to them is another way to make it seem like the government has been watching him. They’re trying to dance along a fine line at the moment. They need to play into his delusions enough that they can get onto the bus and end this situation before more people get hurt, but they can't accidentally egg him on to where he attacks more people. “We’re going to send in two technicians to remove the device.” Dean sighs with relief. He can handle this if he’s allowed to go onto the bus with his brother. It looks like that’s Novak’s plan anyways. Unfortunately, he should’ve known it was too soon to be relieved.

“No!” Andrew May shouts through the phone. “Only one technician.”

“It’s a delicate procedure that requires two technicians,” Castiel pushes, trying to calmly maintain control of the situation. Nobody wants to have to send Sam in by himself.

“NO!” They can hear the unsub slam his fist against the side of the bus from across the phone. “One tech...technician ONLY! Or I kill every agent on this bus.” He hangs up the phone without giving Castiel a chance to respond.

“We only have twenty minutes left,” Dean says, worriedly. Twenty minutes to find some sort of chip and for Sam to practice his slight of hand. That’s not enough time.

Gabriel steps forward holding a tiny computer chip from one of the S.W.A.T. team’s walkie-talkies. It doesn’t look like much, but Dean figures it’ll look better when it’s covered in the unsub’s blood. Gabe hands the chip to Sam and asks him to show him the magic trick. Sam pulls on a pair of latex gloves and tries to do his trick. The chip slips out of his hands and onto the ground.

“You need to relax, Sam,” Dean says, though he feels far from relaxed himself. He’s about to have to watch his baby brother put himself in harm’s way without being able to do anything to help.

“I’m trying.” Sam picks up the chip. “This is a lot smaller than I’m used to using.” He tries the trick again and fails again.

Dean looks frantically towards Gabriel. “I’m pulling the plug on this, guys.”

“Wait,” Sam yells. “Let me try it again.” He slows down his movements this time. He hides the chip in between two of his fingers, does a movement with his hand, and then the chip appears again in between his index finger and his thumb.

Castiel and Gabriel exchange looks, and then Gabriel speaks up. “You take the chip out, and then you immediately exit the train.” Sam looks like he’s about to say something. “No arguments! Say you have to bring the chip back to the Supreme Entity or you have guidelines to follow. Do not stay in there with him. I want you in and out as quickly as possible.”

Under normal circumstances, Dean would’ve made a ‘that’s what she said’ joke, but he’s too nervous right now. He holds out a bulletproof vest for Sam to put on. “Don't take this off,” he orders, and Sam makes a face at him. “I’m serious, Sammy.” The kid sighs, but he puts the vest on without arguing.

“Don’t make eye-contact with Jo,” Castiel says. “You don’t know her. You’re just a technician.”

“Right.” Sam takes a deep breath. The rest of the team stands by silently. “Could you guys do me a favor?”

“Anything you need,” Gabriel says.

“Could at least one of you look like you believe you’re going to see me again?” Sam asks. “You’re freaking me out.”

“We’ll see you when you get back,” Castiel says to placate him. Sam can probably tell the older agent doesn’t believe what he’s saying. The guy is a terrible liar apparently. Dean just claps his brother on the back. He knows he can’t say anything to make Sam feel better right now, since there’s nothing anybody else could say to make _him_ feel better right now.

<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Sam takes a series of calming breaths as he walks towards the bus. He knows he’s in full view of the unsub, Andrew May, so he makes sure to keep his expression clear of worry. He doesn’t want to have to put himself in danger like this, but Jo is his friend. She’s trapped on that bus right now along with the other seven hostages, and he can’t leave them there when he can do something about it. He feels his entire team watching him, but he doesn’t turn back around. He just puts one foot in front of the other until he gets to the bus.

He knows that there’s a possibility they’ll send the S.W.A.T. team in without him being notified about it. There’s no real way they’d be able to warn him. He also knows they might try to take out the unsub with a sniper shot if they can get a clear angle. These are all possibilities he has to prepare for. He opens up the door to the bus and sees Andrew May standing a few feet away with his gun held to one of the hostages’ necks. If he’s remembering correctly, this hostage is Meredith Allen, the woman who’s going to graduate school. She’s crying silently while the unsub holds her in a loose chokehold.

He clears his throat quietly before speaking, trying to keep his voice as calm and level as possible. “I’m here to remove the chip from Andrew May.”

The unsub lowers the gun from Meredith’s neck briefly to gesture towards him. “Take the vest off,” he orders. “I want to see you.”

Sam freezes. Dean ordered him not to take the vest off, and as much as his older brother’s mothering annoys him, he’s right about this one. That vest is his only layer of protection between potentially getting shot by an unsub in the middle of a psychotic break. “I’m not carrying any weapons,” he says slowly. “The Supreme Entity doesn’t authorize technicians to carry guns.” He hopes Andrew will believe his excuse.

Andrew’s face twitches again. “Take it off!”

It doesn't look like Sam has any choice in the matter. He can see Jo watching him out of the corner of his eye as he slowly pulls his vest off. Dean is going to kill him!

“Don’t try anything funny,” the man says. “I want to see both of your hands at all times.” He pushes the gun a bit more forcefully into the woman’s neck, and she whimpers. Sam can see Jo straining against the handcuffs that are restraining her to the chair. She probably hates that she’s unable to help in any way right now. “Sit down there!” He points towards the seat across from where he’s standing. Sam sits down, and then the man pushes Meredith away from himself before sitting down in the seat across from him. The man keeps his gun drawn on Sam while he pulls out all of the medical gear he brought with him onto the bus. He needs to get this right or he’s definitely going to be shot. He completed the trick accurately once out of the three times he tried it, but he’s more nervous now. He doesn’t like those odds.

“Why are you so nervous?” Andrew May asks, pointing at his shaking hands with the gun.

“I told you, I’m not comfortable around guns,” Sam grasps onto the excuse like a lifeline, praying the unsub buys it. He pulls out the scalpel, and the man holds out his arm. The scars up and down his arm look deep, and they’re in varying stages of healing. Some of them look pretty fresh and others are a fading pink color. Sam chooses a spot that’s not already marked up and presses the scalpel into the man’s skin. He has the chip hidden between his fingers. All he has to do now is pretend like he’s digging around in the wound, and then he’ll pull out the bloody chip, hoping the unsub doesn’t look at it too closely.

He takes a deep breath and does the trick perfectly, pulling out the chip and holding it up for the unsub to see. One of the other hostages mumbles that he can’t believe there was actually a chip in this guy. This incident is surely going to cause some internet conspiracy theorists to go wild if it ever becomes public, but Sam can’t worry about that now. He locks eyes with Andrew May to see what his reaction is.

“I knew it,” May sighs with relief. “I knew there was a chip inside of me.”

Sam knows he needs to make his exit now. He stands up and begins heading towards the door. “I need to return this to the Supreme Entity right away.”

“Stop!” Andrew May yells. He raises the gun towards Sam. “Turn it on.” How is he supposed to turn this useless walkie-talkie chip on? He has to think quickly on his feet or this is going to end really badly. “Turn it on or I shoot!”

“I c-can’t turn it on,” Sam says, desperately trying to come up with an excuse.

“Why not?!”

“Because it has to be implanted for it to work,” Jo says from across the bus. Sam breathes a sigh of relief. He can work with that.

“She’s right,” he lies. “It automatically turns off when it’s not inside of your skin anymore. There’s no way to activate it outside of a person.” Andrew May looks like he believes him or at least like he’s processing what Sam said. He tries to get up. “I really need to leave.”

“NO!” Andrew May points the gun at him. “Sit down.” Sam sits down shakily and hopes that his team will be able to figure out a way to get them out of here soon.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Dean paces back and forth anxiously while Sam does his trick to fake-out the unsub. He’s too nervous to watch. He’d told the kid to keep his vest on!

“He did it!” Jessica exclaims, and Dean rushes over towards the screen to watch as Sam pulls the fake chip out of the unsub’s arm. It looks like the two of them are talking. Sam should be leaving, not talking.

“Get out of there, Sammy!” Dean yells through his teeth. He feels a firm hand rest on his shoulder, and he tenses before seeing that it’s Castiel. The other agent gives his shoulder a little squeeze, and Dean calms down incrementally. “Why isn’t he leaving?”

Gabriel turns to the head sniper. “How many shots would it take for your men to get inside?”

“One to break out the glass and another to hit him,” the sniper replies.

Gabriel sighs. “After he hears the first shot, he’s immediately going to start lighting up the place.”

“That’s the best we can do,” the sniper says.

Gabriel nods. “Okay. Stand-by.” He walks back to the rest of the group. They all watch as Sam sits down, and the man holds a gun to him.

“He’s not going to let him go,” Dean says frantically. The hand on his shoulder squeezes him again, and while he appreciates the gesture, it doesn’t negate the fact that his little brother is in danger right now. He takes a step to the side to get away from Castiel.

The blue-eyed agent looks sad for a second before he schools his expression. “Now he has two agents hostage,” he sighs and presses the call button. Dean knows he’s going to try and talk this man down.

A movement on the screen catches their attention. It looks like the driver, Clark Adams, is trying to involve himself. He’s been drinking this whole time, so whatever he’s saying probably isn’t productive. They watch as both Jo and Sam try to convince the unsub to answer the phone. Andrew May doesn’t listen. He turns around and shoots his gun. The bullet hits the bus driver, and he falls onto the ground. Andrew May puts his hands up to his head and pulls on his hair, then he walks to the other side of the bus to answer the phone. Once he’s out of the way, they can see Sam and a couple of the other hostages rush over to try and help the gunshot victim.

“Hello?”

“I did what you asked me to, Andrew,” Castiel says sternly. “Why haven’t you held up your end of the deal?”

“I’m tired,” the man groans. “I’ve been fighting you guys for so many years. I just want it to be over.”

“It is over,” Castiel says.

“It isn’t over yet,” Andrew says quietly. “But it will be.” He hangs up the phone and slumps down against one of the seats.

“What does that mean?” Jessica asks.

“It means he’s decided on an ending,” Gabriel says. Dean knows exactly what he’s thinking. He wants to run into the bus himself to kill this guy, but he knows that wouldn’t be productive. Instead he slams his fist against the wall angrily.

“What ending?” Jessica asks, clearly trying to ignore his display of rage.

“He’s going to kill himself and the hostages,” Castiel says quietly. The rest of the room grows silent as they all let that sink in. “We need to send S.W.A.T. in.”

Dean’s head pops up at that. He quickly walks towards Agent Novak and lowers his voice to a whisper. “If you send them in now, hostages are going to die!”

“You’re right,” Castiel says, his voice betraying no emotion. “And if we do nothing, everyone will die.”

“My brother is in there, you son of a bitch!” Dean yells.

“Agent Winchester!” Gabriel shouts. _Fuck, he really crossed a line_. “Give me your gun and move over to the edge of the room, please.” Dean sighs, but he hands Gabe the gun and walks to the corner. At least he’ll still be able to hear what goes on.

“Sam is talking to him again,” Jessica says. Dean turns and watches as the rest of his team faces the screen. He can’t believe he had a childish outburst and is now forced to sit in time-out. He’s been working with Sam for a while, but he’s still not used to the kid being out in the field and all of the risks that come along with that.

“Don’t push him, Sam,” Gabriel groans. Dean knows that Sam is probably using that big brain of his to try and manipulate the unsub or get inside of his head, but this guy is too far gone. He’s already decided on his end game, it’s just a matter of when he’s going to implement it. And if Sam is egging him on, it’s likely he’ll be the guy’s first target.

“This has gone on for long enough,” Castiel says, then he turns to the head sniper. “Send them in now!”

Dean steps forward to watch what happens on the screen. He figures everyone else will be too busy to notice that he’s rejoined the group. He sees Andrew May walk towards Sam slowly with his gun raised. The man must not notice, because he’s so focused on Sam, but as he passes the seat Jo is handcuffed to, she sticks her leg out to trip him. That gives Sam the opportunity to knock the man’s gun out of his hands. It flies through the air for a moment, and then Jo is able to grab it and fire off one shot. It hits Andrew May in the stomach, and he falls down. 

Dean rushes out of their makeshift command center and runs towards the bus as the S.W.A.T. members move in. He can hear footsteps chasing behind him, but he doesn’t know which of his team members it is, but he doesn’t care right now. He just needs to get to Sam. He steps onto the bus and sees Sam leaning over Andrew May.

“We need an ambulance,” Sam says.

Dean takes in the scene in front of him. The dead security officer is in one corner. The bus driver who’d been shot is being supported by two of the other hostages. The woman who’d had the gun on her is sobbing quietly. He meets Jo’s eye and sees a gash on her check from where the unsub must’ve hit her. Then he turns around and sees Agent Novak standing behind him. He must’ve been the person who chased after him.

The local officers usher everyone off the bus and the EMTs sort out who needs medical attention. Dean can hear Jo arguing with Gabriel about whether or not she needs to go to the hospital for the gash on her cheek.

Sam looks sheepishly at him like he’s waiting for Dean to yell at him. Normally, he would, but he’s too glad that Sam is okay to yell. He pulls his brother into a hug. When they part, he does give him a light slap on the shoulder. “Ow,” Sam says indignantly.

“I told you not to take your vest off, bitch,” Dean says.

“I didn’t have any other choice, jerk,” Sam responds quickly. Dean hears a quiet chuckle behind them. It’s probably Castiel. He really needs to apologize to the guy about his earlier outburst.

Sam goes over towards Jo to make sure she’s okay, leaving Dean alone with Castiel. “Look, man,” Dean starts awkwardly. “About what I said earlier—"

“Don’t worry about it,” Castiel interrupts him. “I know you were just worried about Sam.” Dean nods, grateful that his boss doesn’t seem to be holding some sort of grudge against him. “Though I do hope you know, Dean… I may be new here, but I care about this team. I will always do whatever I think is best to keep everyone in my charge safe.”

Dean nods. “Understood. I’ll try not to freak out on you again.”

Castiel looks at him for a second before continuing. “You seem very tense, Dean,” he says, and Dean immediately tenses further. “I’m not trying to pry, but if it isn’t too forward, I’d like to suggest some techniques to help you stay calm during stressful situations. I have a book I could lend you.”

If it was anyone else talking, Dean would be offended, but he can tell the other agent is being sincere. “Okay,” he says slowly, drawing the single word out.

“You two kiss and make up?” Gabriel asks. Dean hadn’t noticed him walk up.

Castiel rolls his eyes at his half-brother. “In a sense,” he replies in that deep voice of his.

Gabriel nods and hands Dean’s gun back to him. “I know it’s hard to watch while someone you care about is in harm’s way, but this isn’t going to be the only time this happens. Sam is a field agent now, and from what I’ve seen so far, he’s a damn good one. You need to get used to that idea.” Gabriel claps him on the back and tells everyone to get back into the SUV so they can go home.

On the ride back to the BAU, everyone is pretty quiet. Gabriel has some RnB playlist going on the radio to fill the silence. Dean sits next to Sam, but they don’t say anything. He feels like he’s going to have a hard time letting the kid out of his sight for a while. Gabriel is right that Sam handled himself well in the field today. He took a few more risks than Dean would’ve liked, but if he’s honest with himself, he would’ve done the same thing in that situation. Maybe he is too tense.

He looks over at Castiel, and the other agent shoots him a small smile. The rest of the drive home, Dean can’t help but wonder what Castiel had meant when he said he knew ways to help Dean relax. That sounds vaguely dirty, but Dean’s sure it isn’t, as much as he might wish it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to nudge these boys in the direction of some BDSM goodness, but y'all know how stubborn they are. It might take a while ;)


End file.
